We're All Perfectly Normal
by The Great Flying Toaster
Summary: That's what they keep telling themselves. That they have every right to be human too. Except for the new kid and his lush of a normal sister. Maybe being normal is a little overrated. Everyone's a little weird. Rated for Language and Adult Situations
1. Did Hitler have a big sister?

01

Did Hitler have a big sister?

May 2nd was a sort of multifaceted anniversary for Elliot and Kyle. The sister and brother were separated by six years and it wasn't until a good 14 years after the brother was born that they actually got along. The two were different. Kyle was the mama's boy, the good, obedient little boy with the large pale blue eyes and the smile that would charm a snake out of it's skin. Elliot was the little blonde princess who liked to wear dresses, play with dolls and muck around in the near by creek looking for those aforementioned snakes.

Back to May 2nd...

It marked the first time Kyle ever used his mutant powers, the second time he ever got Elliot so mad that she broke his leg--the left femur sustained a slight break from when she shoved him down a flight stairs--and the last time he ever got the idea in his head to hacked off a good amount of hair from Elliot's treasured My Little Pony collection. She was twelve and he was six.

Later on their confrontations were more adult and consisted mainly of Kyle hiding Elliot's make up when she wouldn't let him use the computer and Elliot threatening to put him straight back into the leg brace unless he returned her eyeliner and lip gloss NOW! She was 18 and getting ready to graduate. He was 12 and hiding his mutant powers from the bullies at school. It was the second of May and Kyle bought Elliot a purple My Little Pony with that sported a home-done mohawk for a graduation present.

Their parents (well meaning, but normal-ish suburbanites who didn't know how to handle a withdrawn mutant boy much less a teenaged one) sent Kyle to live with Elliot when he was 13 and she was 19. The herpetology major rolled her eyes and grumbled a little, but welcomed her younger brother into her small (if not cheap and in the middle of nowhere) condo with a sarcastic remark that was quickly returned. They lived in relative peace, developing more of a Comedy Central roomates relationship and forsaking their outmoded sibling war.

It was May 2nd when Elliot and Kyle first learned about Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters via a freaking three ring mutant circus appearing on their doorstep. Elliot was 22 and Kyle was 16.

xXxXxXx

It happened to be a late Monday evening. Elliot had dragged herself home after a long day of classes and work and was sitting with a cup of coffee and a shot glass full of Scotch, trying to remember what it was like to be human ('No pun intended,' she thought though she considered her brother to be a lot more human than most of humanity). She could see Kyle answer the door from where she sat and saw him stiffen slightly. Somewhere in the flat, a lightbulb flickered on and off the way it always did whenever Kyle got worked up about something.

Elliot came to an instant alert. There had been a lot of reports about anti-mutant violence recently. Kyle had been suspended the day before after he had used his powers on a bunch of bullies. It wouldn't be that hard to find out where they lived, especially since Kyle's dick head principle was also a dick head anti-mutant sympathizer. Though apparently not so much of one as to not ask the mutant's older sister out to coffee, fucking dick head. She had her handgun out, the safety off and trained on one of the males before they even took a step into the house.

Kyle was sufficiently embarrassed. "Jesus, El, calm down. These guys aren't dick head anti's."

"Oh, excellent," muttered Elliot, tossing the handgun over her shoulder and listening to it discharge into the living room ceiling, "Wonderful, splendiferous, why don't you invite them in and we'll have a fucking party."

"I hope you will excuse the intrusion..." began the oldest, a cripple with a bald head and a sophisticated voice, "We were hoping to have a word with you about young Kyle's powers."

"Yeah sure whatever," Elliot muttered again, wandering back into the kitchen to dump the coffee down the drain and pour herself another shot. It had been a really, really long day.

Kyle was a lot more cordial. He was quick on his feet in most social situations, always the one to make peace with the bullies (in most cases anyway) instead of getting into fights like his older sister, who had ruled her elementary school playground with an iron fist. He invited the trio on their door step in and led them into the living room. Besides the bald crip, as Elliot had begun referring to him in her head, there was an attractive red haired couple that Elliot immediately disliked for the fairly petty reason that in her youth she had become sick of the dumb blonde jokes and began to yearn for natural red hair.

But that might have been the booze talking.

Kyle had finished his required part as the host, offering their less-than-welcome guests drinks, and sat down on the stiff wood chair that faced the comfortably stuffed couch where two of the three were seated. "So," he began, slowly, not entirely sure what to do, "What can I do for you folks?"

"My name is Charles Xaiver, Kyle," began Baldy, "This is Scott Summers and Jean Grey. We have come today to offer you something that may just save the life of you and your sister and give you something you've never had before."

'If he says a sober guardian, I'm gonna have to do something wildly politically incorrect,' thought Elliot, taking another shot. It had been a reeeeeeeeeeeeally long day. She didn't notice the two looks that the red haired woman and Baldy (Xavier, whatever) shot her.

Kyle did.

"I'm not sure I entirely understand," Kyle said slowly, "Are you saying you want to take me away from my sister? Like she's not doing a good job taking care of me?"

"Of course not, Kyle,"said Scott Summers, in a friendly tone, "The Professor was just suggesting that you might be better suited living with kids like yourself who are going through the same things that you are."

It probably wasn't meant as an insult, but Elliot was two drinks away from taking it as one and she had moved from Scotch to whiskey.

"The Institute is designed to help kids like Kyle," said Jean Grey, this time addressing Elliot, "He'll be able to learn how to control his powers there, away from bullies and anti-mutant sympathizers."

"Yeah, see, here's what I don't get," said Elliot getting up and sauntering over to stand between the intruders and her brother, "Where were y'all nine years ago when ikle Kyle's powers or abilities or what-the-fuck-ever first manifested? Or how 'bout two years ago when dear ol' mummy and daddy were ready to dump the little shit on his ass in some alley?" All the built of anger that Elliot had gathered over the past 15 years of watching other people treat her little brother like shit had just found a very suitable outlet.

There had been bullies. Bullies he never told her about until he came home with a bloody nose, with a black eye, with a bloodied lip. Bullies she couldn't get to because she was one step away from expulsion, from not being allowed to graduate, from going to jail. And all that time he had been practicing with his powers, learning to control them. And now these yahoos wanted to take him away from her after 15 years of putting up with the little fuck so he could learn how to use something he already controlled and could get away from something that had dogged him his entire life when the charming smile had failed.

Elliot glanced down at her younger brother. He grinned and shrugged. He was no psychic, but he was her little bro. He knew she was pissed off and was enjoying every moment of it. That settled it. "The kid can go, but I'm coming too."

Whatever the three had been expecting, it hadn't been that. Maybe Red and Blady weren't psychic after all she thought, but then, she hadn't really had the thought in her head that long before she said it.

"Hey no fair!" yelped Kyle, jumping to his feet, "This is a school for mutants! Not freaks like you!"

"Nyaaaa, watchya gonna do about it, twerp!" scoffed Elliot, pulling a face at her brother. As if in reply, all of the light bulbs in the house blazed bright before simultaneously shattering. There was a deep boom from Elliot's bedroom, informing her that her brand new PC had just gone off to the Great Mother Board in the Sky. "Oh that's it, you're dead!"

"Catch me if you can, loser!" mocked her little brother, jumping to the ceiling and clinging to it by way of static. He spider-crawled across the high ceiling while his sister chased after him, throwing whatever she could lay her hands on at him.

Their guests were left behind in the living room.

Xavier suddenly gave a soft laugh. Scott and Jean stared at the out of character display. "Professor, you can't be seriously considering letting that..." Words failed Jean for the first time in a long while.

"Why not," chuckled Xavier, more to himself than his two students, "You're as mentally adept as I am, Jean. While their relationship on the outside may appear something both would wish to end, they are deeply devoted to each other."

"But she's not a mutant!" blurted out Scott, "She'll be completely defenseless if Magneto or Sinister decides to attack!"

A loud thump accompanied by a lot of swearing and scuffling came from somewhere in the depths of the condo. Elliot, dragging her brother who was hogtied with duct tape, reentered the room. "Sooooo, we leavin' tonight or are y'all gonna send a car around?"

TBC

Okay first of all, I don't have anything against Jean. In fact, I like the gal. She's really strong and a good role model, but I, myself, am a big sister and she just screams "easy pickings." Also, I'm a terrible authoress who's crap when it comes to remembering what universe is where, so...yeah, I'm making things up as I go. Primarily it's based in the old cartoon, because that's what I grew up watching and I'm more familiar with the characters from that one.

IN THE NEXT CHAPTER: 99 Members-of-a-Crazed-Mob on the Wall!


	2. 99 MembersofaCrazedMob on the Wall!

02

99 Members-of-a-Crazed-Mob on the Wall!

When the door bell rang a second time, it was seven o' clock on the second of May, Kyle had just finished packing their belongings and Elliot was drunk.

Jean and the Prof.(as Elliot now thought of him, much more PC) had left for the school, to prepare for the arrival of it's first non-mutant inhabitant. Scott had been left behind, to help pack and "keep an eye on things." Of course, Elliot couldn't tell if he was keeping an eye on anything with those stupid glasses. Mostly he just helped Kyle pack and tried not to get annoyed with Elliot who was still unwinding from her long day. Unwinding is a big word that when applied here means "getting shit faced drunk."

"The principle at my school hit on her during my expulsion hearing," Kyle explained, "He's really anti-mutey and Elliot isn't a people person to begin with."

"What happened?" asked Scott, covertly glancing back at the blonde who was busily polishing off the last of her martini ingredients.

"She broke his collarbone," Kyle said, quickly adding when Scoot looked at him, "The cops didn't arrest her or anything. The two that were there are friends of hers."

"So your sister works in law enforcement?" asked Scott, taking heart in this. Law enforcement meant she probably had experience in hand-to-hand combat and weapons use. It wasn't much, but it would give her a slight edge.

"No, she's a science major," corrected Kyle, "She's always been into plants and reptiles, that sort of thing. She knew those cops from the time she punched this one environmentalist and he tried to sue."

Not only did his heart fall, Scott was pretty sure it was now resting somewhere near his feet with his stomach. "You're kidding."

"Nope. The Green dude was trying to protest Elliot taking in a rare breed of tortoise. Course, didn't help his case that she removed it from someone's back yard and it took half of the protestor's finger with it." He gestured to a small playpen, where a large diamond shelled tortoise was relaxing with a head of lettuce. It eyed Scott with what he was sure was a fairly malevolent glint. "Don't stick your hand in there. He only likes Elliot."

Elliot's room was a miniature ecosystem of aquariums and potted plants, her clothes, books and bed filling up the rest of the cramped room. Two large aquariums dominated the room. One held frogs, salamanders and turtles that were of a far smaller variety than the one in the play pen. The second held a large jewel green garden snake who stared at them with one head, while the second stared dumbly up at it's heat lamp (probably the only working bulb in the house). Before Scott could make any sort of comment, Elliot shouted from the living room,

"Heeeeeeey, lightning assh! Some'ns at the dooor!"

"Then how about you answer it, ya lazy nerd!" called Kyle, who was packing up the last of .

"Psssssssssh-shsh!" hissed Elliot, getting up out of her chair and staggering to the door.

It took her a full three seconds of staring at the masked faces carrying burning torches and other mob pariphinalia before she slammed the door in their faces. "Who was it?" asked Scott, hurrying back into the living room, "Was it the Professor?"

Loud shouts and chanting erupted from outside. "Give us the mutant! Hand over the freak! Death to mutant scum!"

"Gee, Shcoot, I dunno," snarled a slightly sobered Elliot, "Why don'tcha go out there and check fer me!"

Kyle appeared, looking very pale. "Oh God," he whispered, "It's finally happened. I knew they'd find us again one of these days."

Scott put a hand on the boy's shoulder, "It's going to be okay, Kyle. I'm not going to let them hurt you or your sister."

"HEY!" The shout that didn't come from the crowd, but Kyle's sister, "Get the fuck off of my daffaaaadils!" This was accompanied by several shots from the hand gun that had been sitting on the coffee table. She had thrown open the bay windows and was now firing over the mobs head and laughing madly.

"Yeah, wull see I wasn't worried about us. Oh FUCK!" yelped Kyle, as the mob returned fire with bricks and rocks. He and Scott took cover behind the sofa.

"Nya! You shtupid inbred fucks couldn't hit the barn side of a broad!" jeered Elliot, firing into the crowd this time. The pained yelps told the hiding boys that the bullets had found marks this time. Elliot laughed, the blush of drunken violence turning the normally cute girl into a hauntingly terrifying beauty.

"Don't kill anyone, El," called Kyle from behind the couch.

"Soooo, when you said "they'd find us again" I guess that means she's done this kind of thing before," said Scott, silently wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into. Sure there had been some anti-mutant attacks when he and the others were gathering new students, but a drunk trigger happy sister was a first.

"Yeah," sighed Kyle, "This is always a huge pain in the ass. Usually I just go out and do the whole earth shattering lighting storm thing and they beat it, but Elliot always gets this way when she's shit face drunk and someone tries to pick a fight." He arranged himself more comfortably, "Better get comfy, Mr. Summers, she's not gonna let anyone interfere till the booze wears off or she runs out of ammo."

xXxXxXx

It turned out that she ran out of ammo first. After that, she chased whatever was left of the mob around the perimeter of their condo with a sledge hammer while Kyle amused himself by zapping the ones that ran by the bay window in the ass with bolts of electricity. In between that he chatted with Scott who had fallen into a weird sort of calm.

It was midnight on May 3rd when the car from the school pulled into the drive. Jean and the Professor sat staring for a good minute before they finally got out of the car. The condo and the surrounding property was a mess with litter, shattered glass and whatever had been dropped by the angry mob. Windows were broken and several cars that looked like they had just survived the apocalypse sat in the drive. Graffiti that read "The beast sleeps here" marked the door in red, while below it someone had added with a black permanent marker a very rough caricature of a woman.

"Oh my god," whispered Jean, getting slowly out, "What happened here?"

The door opened and Kyle's head popped out. "Oh hey! It's you guys!" He disappeared back inside. Xavier and Jean exchanged looks before hurrying up to the door and into the house. The house looked a sight cleaner than the property. Three boxes were stacked in the living room marked "Elliot's crap," "Kyle's crap," and "Manimal things." The animals themselves stood next to them. "Oh yeah" said Kyle catching their wide eyed looks at the two tanks and the playpen that had been hauled out of the bedroom, "Um, we forgot to ask before you left, but is it all right if these guys come too? These little guys we might be able to let go, but Moses and Luther are family."

"I suppose arraignments could be made," said Xavier, looking curiously at the two headed snake. Jean meanwhile was talking in a quick and panicky tone with Scott. "Where is Miss Aimes?"

"Oh, she passed out awhile ago," said Kyle shrugging, "One of the mob hit her in the head with a brick. I think she might need stitches. It's okay though, we patched her up and I can drive her car. We need to hurry and pack up before those anti's reorganize and come back."

"You've taken care of everything then?" Xavier asked, looking over at Scott who looked a little like he had just come out of the Danger Room.

Scott shrugged, "Don't look at me. Kyle over there's the one with the master plan."

Xavier turned back to Kyle who was helping Jean load things into the back of Elliot's van (the only other not blasted vehicle). 'Truly a remarkable young man,' he thought. It was a good thing they had got to him before anyone else. If Magneto had beat them here...But he hadn't and now Kyle and his sister were going somewhere they would be safe.

Speaking of the girl...

xXxXxXx

Elliot woke up with a dark growl. Her head hurt, her arms hurt, her legs hurt. In fact, everything damn well hurt. Her head hurt the most though. She could barely think for the pounding. Memories of last night came in flashes of sound and color. Damn, someone must've snuck up on her. She shifted her weight a little, hissing slowly as the pain shifted with her.

"Ah," said a gentle male voice, "You're awake! Excellent, excellent. You're head wound wasn't as severe as one had first supposed, but still you should have awaken two hours ago."

Yeh, well she might have a hang over... She made a raspy grunt.

"Forgive me, you must be thirsty! Let me get you some water."

Elliot gave a much more agreeable grunt, finding that she rather liked the voice. She heard a faucet run. A strong and very very furry arm helped her to sit up. Furry. Just like an ape, only the hand that was offering her the cup was completely covered in blue fur. 'Well now there's a wake up call for ya,' thought Elliot, taking the cup and draining half the contents in a single gulp. She was more thirsty than nauseous. Elliot had been drinking like a fish since she turned 21 and knew that her body liked to keep the poison inside in order to teach her a lesson. That was fine. The pain in her stomach distracted her from her throbbing head.

Feeling like she had reached a certain amount of lucidity, Elliot looked up at the thing standing next to her. Yup. Blue and furry with a weird mix of ape and bear. But the eyes were human. Maybe that's why she didn't have a panic attack. Or it could have been that Monty seemed to like him. Or she could still be drunk which would be marvelous.

"You took quite a nasty knock to the head," the blue fuzzy thing was saying, in a much more serious tone now, "You're extremely lucky to have not fractured you skull. It was most unwise to wait so long before seeking medical aid." He looked past Elliot, who turned to follow his gaze. An embarrassed Scott and a grinning Kyle sat in uncomfortable looking chairs. Elliot glared at her little brother.

"Jerk," she accused.

"Karma," he replied.

TBC

Kind of a weird chapter. Somewhat filler, mostly a warning of things to come. Thing's really get cooking next chapter, promise.

Next Chapter: Yay Biscuits!


	3. Yay Biscuits!

03

Yay Biscuits!

Elliot was discharged shortly after breakfast.

That is to say, she checked herself out. As soon as she regained feeling enough to move, there wasn't a lot the blue furry doc could do to stop her. He did manage to get her to stay long enough to let him put a protective bandage over her stitches by promising to show her around. Elliot submitted. She liked this new doctor. He was an improvement over the last one that had called her a loose tart shortly after examining her breasts.

Actually, he was probably an improvement over most of the men that had walked in and out of her life, excluding Kyle and including her lout of a father.

"I'm Elliot Aimes, by the way," she said as the furry doc wrapped the last bit of protective gauze around her head.

"Charmed, Miss Aimes," he said in that same pleasant voice, "I am Doctor Hank McCoy."

"You can call me Elliot," she said, feeling a little funny about being addressed as "Miss Aimes."

"Thank you, Elliot," he said giving her a kind smile, "You may in return call me Hank."

The whole exchange made Elliot start reconsidering her social circles. She was definitely not hanging out in the right places to catch guys like Scott and the good Doctor. Though she rather preferred the doc to Mr. Bespectacled. Scott was just a little too normal for her tastes.

There was a slight argument involving Elliot and a wheelchair. Hank maintained that she should take it as easy as possible until she was fully recovered. Elliot argued that there was no way in hell she was going to let her little brother or anyone else for that matter wheel her around when she had two perfectly good legs. Elliot won in the end, marching down the hall ahead of everyone while Scott muttered something about her being worse than Wolverine.

"Elliot is a very strong willed young woman, Scott," soothed Hank, foreseeing a future as a mediator between the likes of Elliot and Scott, "But she is not nearly as restless as Logan. I believe she will be a good influence among some of the younger X-Men."

"She may not be as restless, but she as hell is crazier," growled Scott, "I don't like it, Hank, it's too dangerous to have her here."

"Yo!" called Kyle, "If Scott's done with his paranoid ranting, I think we found the elevator."

xXxXxXx

"Nice digs," said Kyle, looking around the main hall of the mansion, "Plenty of rooms, elegantly furnished, huge grounds, high tech underground fortress."

"Too bad we weren't zoned for an underground fortress," said Elliot wistfully, "That would have made up for that damn leaky roof."

"Yeah, I hated that roof."

Hank chuckled, "Well, you two seem to be adapting quite nicely! Why I believe that young Kyle is well enough to by pass the other new students in the group therapy sessions."

"NO SHRINKS!" Kyle and Elliot chorused suddenly, spinning around to face Hank and Scott.

"It's standard procedure," argued Scott, "All of the students are required to go through group session. It helps some of the students who've come from violent backgrounds become more comfortable and feel accepted for who they are."

"I come from a violent background and I feel comfortable and accepted for who I am," said Kyle with a shrug.

"I don't!" said Elliot cheerfully raising her hand, "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!"

"You can't go, Elliot," Kyle said in a childish voice, "It's for kids like me and not stupid loser freak nerds like you!"

"Whaaaaat?!" gasped Elliot, "Hey Scoot, did you hear that! Yer gonna get it now, you stupid twerp!"

Kyle was already halfway up the stairs, "Nyaa, ya can't catch me, you stupid loser freak stupid head!"

"I'll show you!" howled Elliot, bolting up the stairs fairly quickly for someone with a mild concussion. They ran up the stairs, down the hall and in a matter of moments had left their chaperones in the dust.

Scott sighed, running a hand through his hair, "This was a bad idea. I'm going to talk to the Professor. That girl is clearly unstable."

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly, Scott," said Hank, smiling, "Just give them time." Scott walked away grumbling. Hank didn't bother trying to catch up to his escaped wards. He had been around mischief makers like Remy and Jubilee long enough to know an escape plan when he saw one. Besides, he thought it would be better for the two of them were left alone for awhile.

"Guess they aren't going to follow us," said Kyle peeking through the vents of the hall closet he and Elliot were sitting in.

"Good, because my head is starting to throb somethin' awful," mutter Elliot. Kyle opened the door and the two of them stepped out into the hall.

"That was pretty lame though," Kyle said to his older sister as they walked down the hall at a far more sedated pace, "We gotta come up with some better stuff. I think we might be getting to old for that routine."

"Yeah you're probably right," agreed Elliot, stretching, "Scoot bought it, but I don't think we fooled the doc. I liked that whole "I'm comfortable with myself" thing though."

"That was a pretty good one, wasn't it? Oh this is your room." Kyle opened the door and led the way in. "You gotta unpack still. I fed the critters and set up Moses's crib, though."

"I knew there was a reason I kept you around," Elliot said, "Hello my darlings," she said to the collective creatures, "How's the new set up? It's bigger than what we're used to, isn't it?"

"My room's in the next hall over," said Kyle, "And guess what? There's this really cute chick in the room next to mine. Total mall rat. Super hot stuff."

"Obviously our well meaning benefactor, Mr. Xavier, has had limited experience with teenage hormones," observed Elliot, "I, on the other hand, am very familiar. Behave or else."

"Yeah, yeah," Kyle waved off his sister, "You're just jealous 'cause all the guys you date are dicks."

"I swear there's gotta be at least one guy who's interested in me and doesn't have a domestic abuse case number," sighed Elliot, flopping down on the bed.

"Isn't that setting your standards a bit high?" asked Kyle innocently.

"Oh go hit on your mall rat," snapped Elliot. Kyle left with every intention of doing so, leaving Elliot to stew. Last night had put a few things into perspective. They obviously hadn't been as safe as they thought. That crowd had been a lot bigger and a lot more organized than the last few. Granted they were organized for a teenaged kid who could manipulate things using electricity and shoot lightning bolts, not for a woman in her early twenties shit face drunk and wielding a twelve gauge. If her less than sober antics hadn't completely thrown them off, a lot of things could have gone wrong.

She knew the life she and Kyle had been living wasn't very ideal. They had a crappy, cheap-ass condo on crappy, cheap-ass property. They were just barely pulling in enough income to support the two of them, not to mention her lab fees at the university. Their parents would have been more than willing to send them the cash, but they were already paying most of Elliot's tuition and the two of them were way too proud to except that much help. The cause of their friendship had probably more to do with living just above the poverty level than the fact that the two of them had matured past sibling rivalry. Now they found themselves living in a place were room and board was taken care of and Kyle was surrounded by kids that were like him.

There was a catch. The underground fortress spoke volumes. They weren't in any less danger here than at their old condo. The only difference was that they were better equipped and wouldn't have to fight off deranged, violence crazed mobs by themselves. They had a legitimate support group now. Well, Kyle would anyway. Elliot wasn't the kind of person to naturally assume she would be welcomed with open arms just because her brother was a mutant. Despite all her eccentricities, she was still human. What made her common place would make the abused mutants wary and mistrusting. What made her unique would drive a wedge between her and the mutants who were trying to feel like normal humans. She was going to have to find a midpoint, just like she did back in the human world.

Elliot Aimes was the kind of person who attracted outcasts and loners, like a mad auntie who the normal ones tolerated because she made a smashing biscuit.

'Damn,' though Elliot, as she slipped into sleep, 'I'm gonna have to brush up on my biscuit recipes.'

xXxXxXx

"Hey." Kyle looked up from his chest of drawers to find the cute mall rat standing in his doorway. He grinned.

"Hey."

"Sooo, you're the new guy, huh?" she asked, coming in and plopping down on his bed. Some might consider it rude, but Kyle did have an older sister. He was used to things like that.

"Yeah. I'm Kyle." He tossed the shit he was holding into the drawer and held out his hand. She shook his hand. Her hands felt good in his.

"I'm Jubilee," said the dark haired girl. She had a rapid fire speech pattern and didn't bother with too many formalities. "So, like, is it true that that lady who came with you isn't a mutant? Like she's actually just a normal person?

"Well, she's not mutant, but I wouldn't go as far as to call Elliot normal," answered Kyle, sitting backward on the chair across from his bed and resting his arms on the back.

"So what, is she like your guardian or something?"

"My older sister. My parents sent me to live with her when I was 12 because of the whole mutant thing."

Jubilee's eyes widened, "Wow, seriously, like they turned you out? Man, that's rough. I dunno if I could've handled it if my folks tossed me out for somethin' that like wasn't even my fault. Of course, my powers didn't show up until like right when the Professor and the rest came to get me. How long have you had your powers?"

"Since I was six," he said, grinning at the memory, "I found out that if I concentrated really hard, I could cut the hair off of some of my sister's dolls."

"Bet she wasn't too happy about that."

"She pushed me down the flight of stairs we were on," he said with a grin, "Broke my leg. I told her I wouldn't tell mom and dad how it happened if she didn't tell them that I was a mutant."

Jubilee was actually quiet for a second, "That seems a little harsh."

"We were pretty young. We fought like that all the time back then. That was actually the second time she broke my leg," Kyle said, offhand, "The first time was when I colored all over her picture books with a black marker." It was hard to hate his older sister now, after everything they had been through. "So what are you're powers?"

"Oh," Jubilee made a face, "Nothing really impressive." She held out her hand and a bunch of multi colored sparks shot forward in a small mini-fountain. "It's kind of a useless power."

"Bet you're a hit at the fourth of July, though," said Kyle, fascinated, "It's actually pretty cool."

"Yeah? You think so?"

"Yeah."

Jubilee blushed a little and tried not to seem flustered. "Thanks... So now you gotta show me yours."

"Um, okay," Kyle looked around, "Okay, watch that lamp." Jubilee did. As she watched, the bulb flickered on, and then off. Then the overhead light. Suddenly all the lights in the room blazed brightly for one blinding moment before shutting completely off.

"Wow," she whispered, "That was you?"

"Uh-huh," said Kyle, trying not to show off. He held out a hand and in the dark Jubilee could see little bolts of electricity attach to the lamp and draw it to him. "I can stick to walls too," he admitted, "Like Spiderman, only I use static."

"That is so cool," Jubilee said enviously.

"I guess it's pretty cool, as far as being a mutant goes," admitted Kyle, "But I can't get my hair to ever lay flat and I have trouble with moisture sometimes."

"So, like I guess you have trouble with kissing too..." The two of them froze, staring at each other in the dark. "I mean...that is...oh man." Jubilee was bright red and even Kyle was blushing a little.

"Well, no, not really...I mean not that I've done a lot of that, but...you know," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah...me either...I mean I have before...

"Oh yeah, me too..."

"...but not a lot..."

"...me either...not really."

"Yeah..."

Silence.

"We..." Kyle struggled to find the right words, "We could try it...Kissing I mean...if you wanted to."

"Oh! Uhm...well, yeah. Okay." They sat very, very still for what seemed like forever. Then Kyle got up and crossed the room to sit on his bed with Jubilee. They stared at each other for a long second. Kyle moved first, leaning forward. Jubilee closed her eyes, because it seemed like the right thing to do. His lips lightly brushed against hers. Time stood still and a tingle of electricity ran through Jubilee. She lost track to the seconds as...

"Knock knock, Kyle!" chirped Jean, "Huh? Oh I didn't know you were in here too Jubilee."

Kyle sat in his chair across the room from the black haired mall rat, all the lights blazing. The two were looking fairly nonchalant. "Oh yeah," Jubilee said, "I just wanted to meet the new recruit, ya know?"

"That's very mature of you, Jubilee," Jean said, still smiling, "Anyway, I just came in to tell you that dinner is ready if you guys are hungry."

"Yeah, I'm starved," said Kyle, standing up.

"Yeah, let's go!" Jubilee said cheerfully.

As made to go out the door, the red head stopped them. "By the way," she said with an uncharacteristic wicked smile, "It's better to keep your romantic rendevous limited to the observatory. No one ever goes there."

The two teens blushed, exchanging glances. "Well, she is a telepath," whispered Jubilee as they followed her out to the hall.

TBC

Awkward and innocent romances make me giggle. More cannon characters introduced in the next chapter and a much less innocent, but just as awkward romance. Two canon character/OC pairings in one fic?! Yeah, I'm a bad person. I'll make it up to y'all soon.

NEXT CHAPTER: You're Cute When I'm Drunk


	4. You're Cute When I'm Drunk

A/N: Thank you to all you wonderful people who read this and review. You make me want to continue life another day! (kidding. Mostly) Time skip! Leaving Jube and Kyle for awhile to focus on the other noncannon pairing: Wolverine and Elliot. Personality clash much? There will be drama because Elliot has a very, VERY messed up past. The reasons as to why she's so hard on everyone and completely politically incorrect will hopefully be explained. Also I'm incredibly lame and can't remember any of the names of the Anti-Mutant groups or find them anywhere online. Help for the lame ass authoress would be appreciated greatly. ;.;

Disclaimer: Don't own the X-Men, which is a cryin' shame because I wouldn't have to even worry about college if I did.

04

You're Cute When I'm Drunk

Their parent's used to think she was a mutant too. Not long after Kyle came out, as it where, they began to think back to all the strange behavior their daughter exhibited. How she was almost nocturnal in her sleeping patterns, slow and unresponsive in the day, awake and fully alert at night. In fact, her mother distinctly remembered one incident when she had come down for a midnight snack and had found Elliot awake, out in their little suburban postage stamp yard. It had been a full moon and not even the light pollution from the nearby city could have blotted it out. Her mother had opened the sliding door, leaning out into the crisp night air.

A coyote-or maybe it had really been a wolf- had howled somewhere way off in the distant. Elliot, little 7 year old, toe-headed Elli, had cupped her hands around her mouth and cried back. It had been an eerily similar imitation. Her mother still remembered how her daughter's eyes had seemed to glow when she called her in. Just like a coyote caught in the porch light.

After Kyle finally confessed about his powers, their parents took him to every specialist, psychoanalysis and psychologist they could find. Elliot they sent to every doctor, biologist and zoologist. Kyle got pills and four years of intense therapy. Elliot got a clean, mutant-free bill of health and started the long process that would become her rebellion against humanity as a whole.

Elliot always was the trouble maker. The one that the neighborhood gossips would shake their heads over whenever she went roaring by in her supped-up muscle car. The one who got suspended for fighting. The small, roughneck science nerd who- their parents always felt a pang of guilt when they thought it- should have been the mutant. Even Elliot when she was in her late teens took on that same attitude. Hell, she even looked like more of a mutant than Kyle ever did. She was too shrimpy, too slender and WAY too blonde. Nothing like the tall, athletic Kyle. She didn't have any of his charm or manners either.

Elliot Aimes was the child who should have been the mutant. Kyle Aimes was the one who should have been the normal human. But you can't really change things like that. So while Kyle prayed that he would someday wake up as a normal human, Elliot fought and drank and smoked herself into a self-destructive spiral. It had taken a lot to pull herself out of that spiral. It had taken a lot for Kyle to not give in to his own increasingly self-destructive thoughts. But they did it. They fought back against madness and hate and they made it out on their own, baring the scars that were left behind like badges of honor.

Hey, no one ever has a perfect childhood.

xXxXxXx

Elliot quickly discovered one very huge thing that she greatly disliked about Xavier's Academy or whatever the hell it was called. It had a dry campus policy.

"Water, water everywhere," she muttered, flipping on the kitchen faucet to fill her cup, "And not a drop to drink." She drained half the glass. "Of course that was probably a misquote." Her head still hurt, though she was mostly positive that it was from the brick-to-cranium action last night. It would probably be a bad idea to start drinking when some of her mental facilities were partially offline.

Probably.

It was half an hour before midnight. Elliot loved this time of night, the anticipation. It was always dead silent right at midnight. For a minute or two nothing would move. Hunter and prey would hold completely still, as if they were statues and not living breathing creatures. Then just like magic everything would start to move again, to come alive. It never ceased to amaze her, always sending a primordial chill down her spine. No matter what kind of shit happened over the course of a day, that one crystal clear minute of stillness was just the thing to push her reset button. Elliot couldn't even remember a time when she wasn't awake for that minute.

Her uncharacteristically peaceful contemplations where broken by the sudden roar of a motorcycle engine. She stilled, crouching a little in the darkness. She hadn't bothered to turn on a light when she came down to get a drink. Actually she hadn't turned on any lights since she had woken up in the dark two hours ago. Enough time to change into her loose white night gown and say goodnight to the Professor who was just retiring. Now there was someone outside. And she was in a God damn NIGHTGOWN and bare fucking feet. Not the best combat outfit in the world. Her mind was already going through all her escape routes, a habit from the old days.

A door opened and closed, a loud bang. Okaaaaaay, so either someone who belonged here or a very confident enemy. Elliot wondered if it was a good idea to turn on a light or not. She heard the light scuffling of feet. Whoever it was had moved to the stairs. Elliot held her breath for a long pause. Nothing...nothing...nothing...nothing...she really didn't want to get her ass blown off by some surprised mutant...still nothing. She moved slowly towards the light switch. There was only one door into the kitchen and there was an island counter in between that and the light switch. She'd just have to remember to duck.

Elliot rolled her eyes at that thought. 'THERE's some positive thinking. Just chill out, everything's gonna be fine.'

Her hand found the cool plastic of the switch. Just as a well muscled arm snaked out of the darkness, grabbing her roughly and throwing her down on the ground. She heard the sound of metal being unsheathed and felt three veeeerrry sharp points against her throat. "Who the fuck are you?" growled a low, deep, gravelly voice. Just as deep as Dr. McCoy's, but not nearly as friendly. Also it reeked of Jack Daniels.

She was somewhat jealous about the Jack Daniels part. Why did HE get to be drunk?! Oh wait...Oh fuck...

'Yay,' thought Elliot, realizing the utter peril quite suddenly, 'Not only is it a dangerous something-or-other, it's a DRUNK dangerous something-or-other.' Well, she didn't really have any room to talk. Someone who spent a booze soaked night firing randomly into mobs and chasing down rioters with a sledge hammer couldn't really criticize someone else's drinking. On the other hand, the three sharp somethings at her throat and the tree trunk sized arm across her breasts did nothing to endear the fucker to her. But to answer his question...

"I'm Elliot," she snapped (a horrid idea but she had never been known for her common sense and her head was still pounding), "Who the fuck are you?"

He ignored her question, the prick, "Elliot, huh? Weird name for a chick."

"Yeah, whatever, now would you mind getting the fuck offa me?!" He had most of his weight on the arm that was across her chest and her boobs were seriously starting to hurt.

He got up and the metal whatever-they-weres left her throat with a soft sound of being sheathed. Elliot got up before he could offer a hand, rubbing her neck where the metal points had dug in. There wasn't any blood, but it still stung to high heaven and back. He noticed, "Sorry 'bout that. Can't be too careful these days." He didn't sound too terribly sorry.

"Yeah I'll just bet," Elliot growled, moving around to put the island counter between herself and the man. Elliot was pissed off. Basically, essentially and in the end, she had lost. Elliot HATED losing. She narrowed her eyes when the guy leaned against the island counter, folding his arms. The fucker obviously wasn't going anywhere and she had the feeling that she wasn't going to be allowed to either. Stupid dick-head.

"You a new kid here, then?" asked the guy, watching her closely.

"No, I'm the new kid's sister," snapped Elliot. She could see the surprise on his face. It wasn't drunken surprise. In fact he was acting completely sober now. Either this guy could hold his booze like no other or he had one of the weirdest superpowers she'd ever seen. She was jealous if the latter was true. "The Prof. was nice enough to let live here along with my little bro, Kyle."

" 's that a fact?" he murmured.

"Yup, I'm the new non-mutant guardian."

"Yer not a mutant?"

"Yeah, I've been checked and everything, I even have papers."

"So whaddya do? You some kinda spy for Xavier or somethin' like that."

"Nope. I'm a student at the University. I'm studying for me BS in herpetology, with a minor in human studies."

He cocked a furry eyebrow. There was a lot about this guy that was furry she realized, now that he had stepped into the moonlight and she could see him clearly. He had a full head of dark hair that turned into wild sideburns. He had it on his arms and she could even see some peeping out from the shirt that had the first three buttons undone. He was built like a tank, too, all hard muscles. Kinda sexy on the lowest level of carnal attraction. "Herpetology?"

"Yeah, herpetology," she explained, " It's a ridiculously complex way of saying the study of lizards and various other cold-blooded-creepies."

"Yer kiddn'."

"Nope."

"So yer pretty much fucked if you get caught in the middle of an attack," the guy groaned.

"Yup."

The guy shot her a half-hearted glare as Elliot chuckled at her own humor. "All humor aside, y'all won't need to worry about me. I can take care of myself."

"Sure, you can, sweetheart," said the guy with a sardonic grin, "But I'm talking about up against some seriously badass mutants, not yer average playground bullies."

"Just like you, huh?" asked Elliot, opening a sliver flask and taking a drink from it. Her face lit up in delight, "Wow, this is pretty good."

"What the hell?" rasped the guy, checking his pockets and the inside of his coat, "Why you little.."

"What was that about being helpless?" cackled Elliot, waving the flask at him. She took another long drink.

The guy settled back down, grinning again. "You even old enough to drink like that?"

"Yup, I'm a big girl," she answered, handing back the flask, "I can tie my own shoes and everything."

"Mouthy little thing, ain't ya," he said, taking a swig of his own. He closed his eyes, savoring the taste of good alcohol.

"You know you never told me your name," said Elliot, a little accusingly.

"Logan."

"Well, Logan," she said, "I'd like to say it's nice to meet you, but you gave a pretty bad first impression and I'm still too sober to rethink it."

Logan shrugged, "That's fair. I'm still trying to figure out why you're even here in the first place."

"The PC answer would be that I wanted to make sure my kid brother was safe and with good people, but really I was tired of paying too much for a piece of shit condo and fighting off crazed anti-mutant mobs every month or so."

"Ya mean folks knew about yer brother?" asked Logan, looking genuinely surprised.

"Well we didn't go around advertising it," said Elliot, "It was mostly my dear old parents fault. They only found out about his powers because he decided to be the obedient little idiot that he was back then and tell them the truth. Next thing you know he's getting sent to therapists galore and _I'm_ shipped off to every DNA specialist in the Western hemisphere just so they could be absolutely sure that I wasn't a mutant too." She grinned, remembering what it was like to be poked and prodded, put through test after test, feeling like just another specimen under the microscope. The feeling of needles inside her.

"I think," she added with some of the old self-disgust in her voice, "that they were really disappointed when I came back mutant free. You should have seen their faces when they realized the child that made up for their freak of a daughter was a freak himself." She took the flask back with more force than was probably necessary and drained it. "Funniest fucking thing I'd ever seen."

"Doesn't sound so funny to me," Logan said in a low rough voice, "Sounds like you were hurt pretty bad."

"You don't think that's funny?" She laughed and smiled at him, a bitter, hard smile. "I'll tell you what's REALLY funny. It's really funny how it's so politically correct to beat the shit out of a woman who tries to stand up for herself and how if a girl is raped and she isn't a pristine, perfect virgin everyone says that she was just a whore who deserved it. It's funny that it's impossible to feel safe at night, when you're walking down the street and there's a guy right behind you who's been following you for the last three blocks. Oh and the fact that the guys who are supposed to be looking out for you won't do a fucking thing about any of it unless you give them a little something in return. That one always gives me a giggle fit."

Elliot leaned forward until she was right in front of Logan, "But what's really hilarious is that people like you and your little gang say you want to help kids like Kyle by putting them in this little fortress of yours without any thought to the fact that you would be taking away the one person who gave two shits about the fucked up non-mutant girl who can't get a single other soul to believe that she didn't deserve to get beaten and raped by her drunk dickhead of a boyfriend. That is just. Fucking. Hilarious."

They stood there for a long minute before Elliot leaned back with a soft sigh. "God, I have no idea why I just said all that." She took advantage of the shadows to wipe her eyes dry. "I'm sorry, that was out of line."

"Don't worry about it," he said in a quieter voice than usual, "It happens."

"That doesn't matter, I still shouldn't have said it." She brought her hand up to rest her forehead in it and felt the bandage. "For some reason I always say the things I shouldn't."

Logan just shrugged, "Sometimes if you keep things locked in too long they come out all at once when you least expect it."

"Mm maybe," Elliot said, rubbing the bandage that protected her stitches. Maybe it was that or maybe she had knocked a few screws loose when that anti-mutant thug hit her with a brick. She should probably go back to Hank and tell him she had suddenly developed a rotten habit of spilling deep dark secrets to complete strangers while she was totally sober. Or not. They'd just put her on some kind of medication and make her go to a shrink that would ho and hum and nod and ask her what she thought about things she didn't even understand. Again. She sighed and lay her upper body across the cool counter, letting her feet kick absently in the air.

"How old are ya?" Logan asked suddenly.

"22," Elliot said, rolling her head a little to look up at him, "Why?" Her position put her head right next to his arm. He was leaning against the counter still, so his face wasn't too far away that she couldn't make out his expressions in the dark.

"Just wonderin'," he replied in an absent voice that didn't match his expression, "Ya look like yer just a kid, but the way you talk makes it sound like you've been around a long time."

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

Logan studied the slim woman in front of him. She was no Jean Grey, Logan decided, but she was still pretty in her own way. When she stayed like that bathed in moonlight, her hair slipping forward to hang against the darkness, she was very beautiful. There was something about her body language, the way her pale blonde hair tumbled down over her slender arms and how those blue eyes were looking at him. She wasn't his type, as far as looks went. He didn't much care for frail, fairy-like beauties, but he'd be an idiot to think she was really as frail as she looked. There was something magnetic about her, something alluring.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like your gonna attack me or something."

He leaned down a little further until his face was almost level with hers. "Scared of me?"

The loud chimes of a clock somewhere deep in the house came seconds after the muffled thump. Logan found himself sprawled out on the floor with the tiny fairy girl on top of him, her hands on either side of his head and her face inches away from his. Her hair fell forward, caressing his face. Time stood still for one crystal clear minute. The only thing he was aware of was her scent and how soft her lips looked and how her body felt against his. The long off howl of some dog, or maybe it was a wolf, broke the spell.

She gave him a wicked grin, sitting up slowly. "I've been dealing with big bad boys like you since preschool," Elliot said, getting to her feet and stepping away from the floored mutant, "No way am I scared of guys like you." His flask landed on his chest. "Fill that up for me and maybe I'll let you be on top next time," she cooed, looking at him from over her shoulder, "Night-night, Logan."

He stayed stretched out on the floor for a while, listening to her soft footsteps as she climbed the stairs. When they had faded, even from his ears, Logan picked the hip flask up from his chest. Opening it up, he slipped his tongue around the rim to get the last bit of booze, tasting the woman who had stolen it from him. Finally, he stood, still holding the flask. He looked down at it and smirked.

"Just a normal little girl, ain't ya sweetheart?"

TBC

Talk about a downer! (not really) So whaddya think? Huh huh? I started writing fan fiction again and it's so much fun! It was like illness, old age, death, heaven, incarnation, hello I'm back again! I hope you guys are having fun too, otherwise we'd all be fucked wouldn't we? (what's she going on about now) Anyway, hopefully the next chapter will be more fulfilling and have important things like plot.

Plot is apparently very important, but I like writing drivel better.

NEXT CHAPTER! Speak Softly and Carry a Big Shtick


	5. Speak Softly and Carry a Big Shtick

A/N:Just so there's no confusion, the person Elliot and Kyle call "Scoot" is in actuality Mr. Scott Summers. Because he's another one of those characters I like to pick on, more so than Jean. Further FYI's, I think that the relationship Kyle and Elliot have is somewhat possible. It seems to me that siblings who are either very far apart in age or very close in age get along better than ones who are half way in between.

ALSO IN THIS CHAPTER! More cannon characters, several deep talks and Kyle gets his first time in the Danger Room.

DISCLAIMER! The ones that make the bukoo bucks don't belong to me. Also the references to book two of A Series of Unfortunate Events and the obscure Excel Saga reference don't belong to me either, but we'll be operating under the assumption that the creatures of the Reptile Room exist in this particular universe. I also ask all you science buffs to please not come and beat me up for any inaccuracies.

O5

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Shtick

Elliot woke up to her brother sporting a lovely black eye asking her if she was going to rejoin the land of the living in the next twenty-four hours or should he just roll her into cave so she could continue hibernation in peace? She did what any sane, rational woman would do when faced with a situation like this. She told him to fuck right the hell off, rolled over and went back to sleep.

"Oh come on Elliot, you gotta come out and meet everybody sometime!" No response. "Scoot keeps threatening me with those stupid therapy sessions," he whined, "He keeps going on about how I need to cope with the violence that's surrounded me for the past 16 years!" Nothing. "I don't get to hang out with Jubilee and every other person I've met so far is a fucking basket case! Seriously, they either act like abused puppies or pretend that they're perfectly normal humans. I can't live with this kind of melodrama!" Elliot hunched down further into the covers. "You know it's only a matter of time before I become one of them. Think about that!" She did. Elliot giggled at the mental image of Kyle as a weepy mutant desperately trying to fit in and pulled the blankets over her head. Kyle glanced over at the laptop Elliot had set out on the desk. Leaning over it, he held out a spark filled hand to tap the power key.

The familiar sound of a switchblade knife opening next to his face made him grin. "Move the hand or I move mine," hissed his older sister, "You already cost me my new desktop computer, boy."

"You're slowing down," he said, looking over at her, "You used to have the knife out in five seconds." Electricity sparked around him, sending a jolt down the blade and into Elliot's hand. She dropped the knife with a low hiss.

"That hurt, you little prick."

"Bring it on, wench."

xXxXxXx

Hank McCoy, also known as Beast, was just passing the door of one of the Academy's newest additions when the door flew open and the occupant's younger brother hit the opposite wall with enough force to rattle the pictures on the walls. The occupant herself stood in the doorway, hands on hips. "Look twerp, this isn't back home! You're in a house full of fucking mutants, man, they can take a hit! You don't have to take any shit from anybody here because you're afraid of hurting someone. So, the next time some lame jerkoff decides to beat the shit out of you, why don't you make those powers of yours useful and shove a lightning bolt up his ass? Don't come knocking on my door to pick a fight, boy. You're about a million years away from beating me!"

And with that said, she slammed the door shut.

Kyle sat in the mini crater his impact against the wall had created. Sighing, he ran a hand through the always rumpled hair. Hank moved to his side, catching the young boy's attention. He gave the furry mutant a candid grin and said, "You know the one thing I hate about fighting Elliot is she lectures."

Hank offered Kyle a hand, helping him to his feet. "You seem in need of a nice walk about the grounds," he said in a gentle tone.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, "Look, I've been around when it comes to things like this. I don't do shrinks or therapy, or pills."

"Yes, you have made that abundantly clear to Scott," Hank said with a chuckle, "But I am merely offering myself as a sympathetic ear. I won't even offer any advice without permission, if it will help you."

Kyle eyed the mutant for a minute before shrugging. "All right. I haven't seen the grounds anyways. It'll be nice to get outside."

"Am I right in assuming that such fights are regular occurrences?" asked the good doctor, as the two of them strolled casually across the wide lawns.

"Yeah that was nothing," said Kyle, "We used to have wars when we were younger."

"With such fighting, one might wonder why the two of you chose to live together in such cramped quarters as your last house and choose to live together still." It was an open ended statement, leaving Kyle with the impression that he had been asked a question he wasn't required to answer. But why not? He trusted the Doctor for reasons he couldn't fully understand and he wanted someone to know. It was something he had never spoken about to anyone, but he felt that this was the time and the person to tell the story to. He wanted someone who had been through their own hard times to know what he and his sister had been through.

"We didn't have much of a choice," he began slowly, "I had to live with her or I would have ended up in some half-way house or military school. I had enough problems from the jerks at school who thought it was funny to pick fights with the mutant kid, without having to worry about watching my back at home. At least when it was just me and Elliot, I knew that whatever fights did happen, they weren't going to be because I was a mutant."

"What about you parents?"

Kyle gave a short laugh. "What about them?"

"Surely they would have taken you in…"

"I'm afraid you misunderstand, Doc," Kyle said with a bitter grin, "My parents are the reason I was living with Elliot. They threw me out."

"Ah, I see," murmured Hank in a softer tone than usual.

"Elliot was furious, but she and our folks have never gotten along. I don't really blame them, though. They're super normal; the kind of people suburban living was designed for. Finding out one of their kids was a mutant threw them off guard, which of course led to the word getting out. Suddenly I'm failing tests for no good reason, the people I used to hang out with won't have anything to do with me and a bunch of playground grade bullies think it's funny to see how far they can push me before I use my powers." Kyle rolled his shoulders to relieve some of the tension, "A few of my friends still talked to me, but they were getting knocked around and suspended for fighting, too."

"It's a flawed system," he added matter-of-fact, "It turned out the guys with all the power were also the ones who kept showing up at our door step with angry mobs. Elliot did her best to defend me, but she wasn't exactly a model human to these people. By that time my parents were so freaked out they didn't know what to do with me."

"So they turned you out," Hank concluded, "A sad situation. If you don't mind me asking, why do you and your sister dislike psychiatrists and therapy so much?"

"My powers manifested when I was six years old," Kyle said, dryly, "I made it three whole years without any problems and then when I finally told my parents about it, they flipped out. I spent the next four years after that going from school straight to a therapist's office every single day and swallowing pills every three hours. I already felt like enough of a freak when puberty hit without daily two hour rounds of some well-meaning specialist asking how I felt about such and such an experience while another well-meaning specialist was handing me industrial sized bottles of prescription drugs. Of course it gets out at school that I'm mutant, which is more than enough to trigger a spiraling depression that gets me sent off to ANOTHER well-meaning specialist asking me how I feel about such and such while a fourth well-meaning specialist hands me more industrial sized bottles of prescription drugs."

That actually seemed to shake Hank up a bit, "Isn't that extreme? Especially for someone as young as you were."

"It didn't matter. My parents got taken in by the whole anti-mutant scene the same as everybody else. It didn't matter if I was their son or not, all that mattered was that I had somehow failed them by turning into a mutant. Like it was something I could control. For a while, I thought they were right. I thought that maybe it was all my fault because I didn't try hard enough to be a good and normal person. It was the therapy and the pills and the people asking me how I felt about things I didn't understand that put me in such a shitty state of mind. I pulled myself out of that on my own with not even a handful of people who would stand beside me. The ones who did stand by me saved my ass and hell if I'm going back into that fucking net of prescription lies again."

"What about your sister?"

"Elliot didn't have it much easier," Kyle went on, though his anger receded a little, "She was only in for about a year, but considering everything she went through... She never really told me what happened. All I know is that she was shipped off to all sorts of doctors for a solid year. She's never really been able to act the way everyone thinks a normal person should act, so when I came out as a mutant, they were positive that she was one too.

The people they sent her to, they did everything, ran every test they could think of. If you ever see her arms, you still see the marks from where they had her hooked up to all sorts of machines. There are scars on her lower body too, from where they took bone marrow samples and who knows what else. After seeing what they did to her body, I was too afraid to ever ask what they did to her mind. She was completely different when she came back, withdrawn and silent. She went into her own self destructive spiral after that. But I don't think she ever completely got away from it. She was always too proud to except any help we tried to give her."

They were standing under a tall tree, looking back at the mansion. "Despite what it looks like," Kyle added, "We get along well. Maybe it's because we both almost fell off the edge, or maybe it's because we've gotten so used to fighting other people that the fights we have with each other seem like entertainment. Maybe the reason I wanted Elliot to come here with me is that I know she never really got away from the edge. We've become so used to backing the other up that the idea of me leaving her behind to come here never really crossed my mind. I guess it should have occurred to me that some of the people here wouldn't like having a non-mutant around."

Hank looked solemnly at the great house before him, "We mutants are still humans, though there are both mutant and human who would disagree. Regardless of that, we have the means to help those who now stare down into the abyss many of us have faced. We should be glad to offer aid in any way we can. Aiding those in need of help with true honesty and sincerity, disregarding how different from you they are is what I believe truly defines humanity." He looked over at Kyle and smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You and your sister are very strong to have made it through so much with so little, but know now that there is always someone here who will help bear the burden."

Kyle grinned, "Ya know, this might sound kinda weird, but that was probably the most fatherly thing anyone's ever said to me. Thanks, Doc."

"You are very welcome."

xXxXxXx

"Hey, you're Jubilee, right?" Jubilee turned away from the window at the sound of her name. She grinned at the woman in front of her.

"Yeah, and you're Elliot, right? Kyle's older sis."

Elliot returned the smile, "Yeah that's right. Speaking of Mr. Lightning-Ass, have you seen him lately? We got in a bit of a fight this morning and I figured I'd try to do the good big sis thing and give him some advice that doesn't involve violence."

"He's out there talking to Dr. McCoy," Jubilee told her, pointing out the window, "I was gonna go say hi, but it looked like they were talking about something serious."

"He's talkin' to the Doc, huh?" murmured Elliot, leaning forward to get a better view, "Guess he won't be needing any help from me at the moment," she said with a grin, "Oh well, it's nice to see he's finally got a decent father figure."

"It's really easy to talk to Hank about stuff," Jubilee offered, "It's like talking to my dad, except I can't always understand what he says. So hey, it's true you don't have powers, huh? Kyle told me last night, but everyone else doesn't believe it. Even some of the adults say they don't buy it. Some of the kids made a huge fuss about it, too, that's why Kyle got in that fight. I think it's bull shit to say that this place is here to help people and then start setting standards to who we can and can't help, ya know?"

"Fer sure," Elliot agreed, resisting the urge to laugh. Okay, this kid she liked. It was nice to see her brother's taste in girls wasn't as bad as her own taste in men.

"Actually, I'm really kinda like in awe of you," Jubilee admitted, "I mean, just from listening to the way Scott was ranting about you it kinda made you sound like you were some crazy drunk, but Logan told him to fuck off right in front of Jean and everything which was actually pretty cool. Oh that reminds me, you haven't met the rest of the X-Men yet, have you?"

"The X-Men?" asked Elliot, which was about all she could get in before a voice popped up in her head.

_Jubilee, would you bring Miss Aimes to my office, please?_

"I'm going to assume that was the way the Prof. pages y'all," Elliot said, trying to get over the weird feeling of having someone else's voice in her head.

"Yeah, it takes a little while to get used to."

Jubilee led Elliot down a maze of hallways, chattering all the way. Elliot had to divide her attention between listening to the girl and paying attention to where they were going. So far her attempts to multitask were failing miserably. She was trying to separate a tangle of quick fire information that came via Jubilee and remember how many lefts and rights they had taken when her guide stopped short at a door.

"This is it!" Jubilee announced, knocking sharply on the door.

"Please come in," said the Professor as the door swung open. The two girls entered. The Professor looked up from behind his desk, giving Elliot a reassuring smile. "Thank you for bringing Miss Aimes, Jubilee, would you please excuse us?"

Elliot and Jubilee exchanged glances that both translated into shrugs, Jubilee throwing in a grin that told Elliot she'd see her later.

"Miss Aimes, thank you for coming," began Xavier, gesturing to a seat, "How have you been adjusting to life here?"

"Well, I'm adjusting," Elliot said with a sheepish grin.

"I'm sure you've heard from Jubilee the reactions to your presence here," Xavier said leaning forward a little, "I want to know what you think of it."

Elliot thought before she spoke, a rare moment indeed, "Well, I guess I can kinda understand where the people who don't want me here are coming from. The kids who have been abused by humans feel threatened because it seems like one of the enemy is living under their roof now. And I know there are kids here who are just trying to be like normal humans who probably heard about my…um…behavior the other night and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want me here because they don't want to be treated like they're any different from normal teenage kids and they probably think that having me around will make them feel like freaks in a circus."

"But," Elliot continued slowly, "I can't leave… I mean if it got to be too much for the kids, I suppose I could, but I don't want to."

"Is it because you have no wish to leave Kyle behind? Or," Xavier said gently, "is it that you are the one who is afraid of being left behind. Did you demand that we allow you to live here because it seemed as though we were taking the only family you had away from you?"

Elliot studied the floor, wondering if it was the telepathy or if someone had blabbed, before answering, "I don't… I'm not much of a people person, but sometimes I just attract people. Sometimes they're good people who are just…weird. Sometimes they're not so good. I'm not very good at telling the two apart… I guess I don't like to turn away someone who seems like they've been mistreated for stupid reasons…. A lot of shit's happened in the past three years and Kyle's one of the only people who's stuck by me through everything."

"It seems both you and your brother have suffered much," said Xavier, "Forgive me, Miss Aimes, I did not mean for it to appear as though I was turning you away. I only wished to understand why you wanted to come here."

" 's all right," she said with a shrug, "I guess it's kind of a rare occurrence to have someone who isn't a human actually want to stay here, eh?"

"A little," he agreed with a sage nod, "Now there are a few other matters that need to be discussed, such as your participation in classes at the university, now I understand that you still have your own transportation, but if there are any difficulties due to your sudden change in living arrangements …"

xXxXxXx

Elliot met up with Kyle as she came out of Xavier's office. She grinned at him, "Hey Lightning Ass, I see that shiner you got earlier is starting to fade already."

Kyle stuck his tongue out at his sister, "What about you? Got called down to the principal's office already? What's this gonna be, a repeat of high school?"

"Ah, shut up, loser," snapped Elliot, "We were just sorting things out, as far as my classes and job went."

"So what's the deal, you still working at that sleazy bar or what?"

Elliot grinned and flashed the V for Victory sign, "Nope, our compassionate and completely loaded benefactor, the dear Prof. Xavier, has picked up the tab on the rest of my college expenses so long as I'm willing to help out around here. And he gave me free reign to independently study snakes and frogs and turtles and all manner of creepy crawlies, complete with ideal reality to comfortably house my findings."

"Jeez, he gave you your own terrarium?" asked Kyle, "You're not gonna go all Reptile Room on everyone are you? I don't think they're ready for the wonders of the Dissonant Toad or the Incredibly Deadly Viper."

"I don't see why not. I mean if my house mates have amazing inhuman powers, I might as well make them aware of all the amazing and inhuman critters there are. By the way…" She pointed to the spandex suit her brother had on, "What's with…?"

"The Totally Revealing Body Suit?" Kyle shrugged, "Dunno, but apparently it's part of the uniform here."

"I'm not sure if outfitting people with wildly unstable hormones and libidos in Totally Revealing Body Suits is such a good idea."

"Yeah, I thought so too, so I've taken several precautionary measures."

Elliot's face dissolved into a look of utter horror, "Please don't tell me you have that cock ring on."

"What?! NO! I've been thinking about really old, naked nuns and dead kittens all afternoon!" Kyle paused for a second, "Wait what exactly is a cock ring and why would do you have one?"

"I'll explain it to you when you're older….In eighty years or so."

"You'll be dead by then."

"Then that will be a perfect time to explain."

Kyle rolled his eyes, "ANYWAY, you remember that super cool high tech underground fortress that's under the school? There's this thing called the Danger Room and I guess they want me to go through that to see how in control of my powers I am."

"Oh this I GOTTA see. Give me a minute to pick up some emergency supplies though."

xXxXxXx (Lots of time skips in this chapter, huh folks?)

There were three other people loitering around the door to the Danger Room when Elliot and Kyle finally found it. One of them was Scott who was tapping his spandexed foot in irritation. "You're late."

"Don't get your tights in a bunch, Scoot," said Elliot, who was now sporting a loose hoodie with a large front pocket, "It's our first day here, ya know, and this place doesn't have any of those handy You Are Here maps."

Scott glared at her (at least Elliot was PRETTY sure he was glaring at her…Hard to tell just from the nifty little visor he had on). "What are you doing here anyway? This isn't a place for noncombatants."

"Hey, I'm a combatant! I'm the one who fought off that crazed mob the other night while the two brave mutants hid behind the couch!"

"We were hiding because you were shit faced and waving a gun around," Kyle said matter of fact, "Speaking of which, you almost took my head off with that stupid sledge hammer when you lost your grip, minus 50 points for sloppiness."

"Up yours, Lightning Ass."

"Enough of this," interrupted Scott, "We've wasted enough time already. Kyle, you come with Storm and I. Elliot, you go up to the observation deck with Remy."

"Sure thing, Scoot, ol' buddy," said Elliot, throwing a mock salute. She shot her little brother a grin and a wink, "See ya, loser."

"Later, freak," said her brother with a grin and a wave, as the nifty sliding doors opened and closed behind him, Scoot and the pretty black woman.

"Right this way, Ellie," said the tall red head with a grin.

"Sure thing, Rem," said Elliot with a smile of her own, following him up to the observation room. She straddled one of the uncomfortable looking metal chairs backwards and watched the tall Cajun work the controls, communicating with Scott through the tall mike that stood out like an antenna from the controls. She waited until he was finished to strike up a conversation, "How come you call Scoot Cyclops?"

" 's his code name," explained Remy, glancing over his shoulder to give her another grin, "The lady he callin' Storm is actually Ororo."

"So y'all use codenames?"

"Oui. Everybody 'cept Jean Grey and Rogue got codenames."

"That's actually kinda cool," admitted Elliot, "What's yours?"

"Gambit." His attention was drawn back to the Danger Room, "Ah, they're starting."

Elliot watched her little brother run through several courses, wondering if he'd get a code name too. Gambit gave her a brief commentary every now and then, explaining what was going on. Scoot (Cyclops was WAY too cool a name for him) and Storm acted more like back up, letting Kyle handle the enemy droids by himself unless he needed it. Which, Elliot thought rather proudly, wasn't often. Scoot gave the order to increase the level. Elliot tried not to gloat as the level of difficulty was raised over and over. Well, she had been a fairly bad influence on her brother, they had spent hours upon hours playing video games during much of their misspent youth.

She liked platformers and horror based rpgs herself (as long as they were real time and not turn based fighting), but Kyle had always gravitated towards the free-for-all, one against a lot fighting games. This was a piece of cake for him. Except numbers do start to make a difference after a while and the AI for the Danger Room was apparently very intelligent. The droids went for an all or nothing suicide dog pile while two other groups waylaid the other two. Elliot knocked her chair over in the process of getting up, "Tell Scott and Ororo to get out of there now."

Remy blinked at her, but flipped on the communication, "Oi, Cyclops, the lady up here says you and 'Ro needa get outta there before…." Too late. Elliot grabbed the taller man and threw him down just as Kyle released a huge wave of electricity. The control board crackled and hissed as the lights blazed brightly for several minutes before going black.

The two in the control room lay unconscious for several minutes before moving. Remy was the first to sit up and look around the pitch black room, "What was that?"

"_Elliot, Remy, what happened?_" was the psychic question from Xavier.

"A very, very big and very, very concentrated amount of electricity," said Elliot, getting up and feeling her way to the door, "It's happened a few times when a bunch of jackasses decided it would be really funny to gang up on the mutant kid." Elliot found the thankfully not spiffy high tech slidey door and opened it. "He's in control enough that the worst it does to people is give you a lot of nasty burns if you get a direct hit, but it kills practically everything that uses electricity."

"Mon deu," muttered Remy, staggering to his feet, "Hope 'Ro and Scott got out in time."

"_I can't reach either of them, but I can feel their presence outside of the Danger Room."_

"Yeah well, we gotta get down there to grab Mr. Lightblub. That move always knocks him out cold." Elliot looked around the pitch black hallway, "Guess he blew out any back-up generator y'all had too." Elliot fumbled around in her pocket for a minute. "Damn, my flashlight's gone."

"Ya brought a flashlight?" asked Remy, clearly surprised.

"Hey, just because the kid thought this was going to be a quick little fight and go doesn't mean I didn't come prepared," said Elliot, "It must have fallen out of my pocket. I just need a little bit of light and I could find it."

"Never fear, _petit _Ellie, Gambit is here," Remy said with a flourish. The room and most of the hall light up from the bright and apparently sparkly playing card Remy held up.

"Now that's nifty," said Elliot, impressed. She found the rubber insulated flashlight a few feet away and turned it on.

"Remy can make it explode too," Remy told her as they set off down the hall. They found the very unconscious Ororo and Scott outside of the Danger Room. "Least they got out okay, but how we gonna get in?"

"I said I came prepared, didn't I?" said Elliot, reaching into the pocket of the hoodie and producing a small crowbar, "Why do you think girls wear these totally unflattering sweaters!" It took them both several tries to pry the door open, but finally there was a gap just big enough for Elliot to slip half way through. "Damn," hissed Elliot, "I can't get any leverage now, the crowbar's too small."

"Then I guess it's a good thing we showed up," said a low, growly voice from the darkness. Logan, Jean and another red haired woman appeared from the darkness.

"Xavier sent us right down here when the power went out," said the red head girl in a wonderfully Southern accent, "What the heck happened here? 'Ro and Scott look down for the count."

"Just a bit of an electrical surge, _cher_," said Remy.

"Are they all right?" asked Jean, who was kneeling beside Scott. She shot Elliot a fearful look, "If there was an electrical surge, maybe they were…"

"Nah, they'll be fine," cut in Elliot, "We got knocked out too, but they got more of the blast. Anyway, I'm more worried about Kyle. He's not gonna be back up and running for another half hour after something like that, so if any of ya have mystic mutant door opening powers, now's the time to step up."

"That's my cue," said Logan, brushing past Elliot, "Rogue, why don't ya pull our fearless leader out of my way." He jammed his hands into the small opening and pulled. They waited for several minutes with baited breath as the door squealed and groaned and slowly, inch by inch, opened. At last they were forced back with the resounding groan and the (conscious) mutants plus one entered the pitch black Danger Room.

Elliot flicked the flashlight around until the beam revealed the downed Kyle, who lay spread eagle, surrounded by dead droids.

"Is he…" Jean began, before Elliot sauntered over and smacked the boy on the top of the head.

"Hey, Lightning Ass! Wake up, man, we need a reboot!"

Kyle groaned, twitched and struggled upright. "Jesus, that hurt," he said, stretching slowly. The onlookers weren't sure if he meant the smack from Elliot or the electric surge. Kyle looked around, slightly bemused, "Wow, we got quite the party. How much power did I knock out?"

"You shorted out the entire house, kid! And you knocked Scott and 'Ro clean out," said Rogue, going over to kneel next to Kyle, "I ain't never seen anything like that from a kid before."

"Yeah, he's really impressive," said Elliot, whapping her brother on the head again.

"Enough with the abuse already!" said Kyle, dodging the blow, "Your friggin' heat lamp is fine! I can still feel the electric pulse coming from it."

"You have been well trained," Elliot said gleefully, "How about a status report. Did you break all the light bulbs or just flip all the main breakers."

"Um, lemme see," said Kyle, closing his eyes. A soft pulse of warm electricity passed through the on lookers. "I shorted out most of the underground fortress…Elevators fine though, it just got a bit of a surge…Observation room and Danger Room are dead…so are the main lights from this hallway, emergency lights work though…main generator will need a little bit of work, but I can get the Emergency one going with a bit of a boost…Upstairs, all the lower level light bulbs are dead…Upper levels are all fine, just a few cut lines that I can fix in no time…" He opened one eye and grinned at his sister, "I've gotten better though. All the big time electronics upstairs and all of the Doc's medical equipment made it out just fine."

"How do you know all that?" asked Rogue, a little awed.

Kyle opened his other eye and gave her a grin, "I can read electric paths and signatures. I've been practicing so I know when a light bulb burns out two blocks away."

"Knock off with the bragging and turn the lights back on," scolded Elliot with another, but far more playful knock on her brother's head. She had to admit she was kind of proud of him.

"You mean you can get this all back up and running?" asked Logan a little doubtfully. As if in answer, the emergency lights in the hall flickered on.

"Piece of cake," said Kyle, "This is nothing compared to the first time I had an electric surge. I had to reroute the entire network to get our block back up and running again. It's because of me that our entire neighborhood never had a power out that lasted for longer than twenty minutes. You'd think they'd be giving me medals for that sort of thing and not sending angry mobs after me."

"Yeah, well it was usually your fault when the power went out anyway," said Elliot, slipping her brother's arm around her shoulder and hoisting him up. Kyle stumbled a little and almost took his much shorter sister down with him, "And for the record, it was a lot easier to haul your ass around when you were scrawny."

"Let Remy give ya a hand, _mon amie,_" said Remy, pulling the boy up and giving his sister a break, "We best get ya to the good doctor, make sure there ain't no perm'nent damage."

"Hasn't been any yet," Kyle said, cheerful, but lightheaded. Letting the tall Cajun help Kyle out of the area turned out to be a good idea because Scott had come around and he was sounding a wee bit tweaked to Elliot's ears.

"Better make that an upstairs appointment, Rem."

" 's just what Remy was thinkin', Ellie."

TBC

Looong chapter to make up for any future absences. I dunno how often I'll be able to update, let alone write, so I'm jammin' them out as often as I can. Real life is working very very late as much as I can so I can go to Savannah, Georgia hopefully before the next Ice Age. Send me good luck vibes!

The next chapter is really bizarre and I'm really sorry if it's just way too much of a shift from what's been going on.

NEXT CHAPTER! The Benefits of Utter Insanity


	6. The Benifits of Utter Insanity

Soooo, hey I've been gone awhile huh? College and life and stress is taking up most of my will to live, so everything else has been put on the back burner. As always, thank you to everyone reading and especially to the ones who review. I'm always a little apprehensive about posting stories with OCs as main characters, but I'm glad you guys are diggin' Elliot and Kyle and the mayhem they create. For those of you who are especially diggin' the ElliotxLogan set-up, there's gonna be more development in this chapter.

Sort of.

In a very very bizarre sort of way.

ALSO IN THIS CHAPTER! VIOLENCE! YAY VIOLENCE! I have no idea where all this pent up aggression comes from. (Too much stress?) Seriously, it doesn't get started until later in the chapter, but if it's too much, I might re-write it. I don't follow a lot of rules when it comes to fan fiction, but there are limits as far as story departure.

DISCLAIMER: The X-men don't belong to me... No matter how much I beg for a few royalties checks. Also I'm Reptile Room-ing it again. Because making up weird reptiles is fun, even if there are plenty of amphibians and reptiles that are already plenty weird.

O6

The Benefits of Utter Insanity

Scott was not pleased with Elliot. Unfortunately, Elliot didn't really give a damn.

Kyle and Jubilee, for their part, were just glad that the grown-ups had left the upstairs infirmary, FINALLY. Ororo and Scott had recovered in no time and were almost immediately discharged, but Kyle couldn't even stand for three minutes without blacking out. He was confined to a bed, with an IV stuck in his arm.

"I still can't believe you were the one who took out the power for the entire mansion," Jubilee said with a grin.

"I'm sitting here with a morphine drip and the worst headache of all time," said Kyle in a playful voice, "Believe it."

"You're okay though, right?"

"Yeah this is nothin'. I'm just completely wiped out." The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while. "You think Elliot and Scoot are gonna get into it soon?"

"Oh yeah," said Jubilee with a laugh, "Scott's way too uptight and serious…Wait, what did you call him?"

"Scoot," Kyle said, "El called him that when she was shitfaced that first night and I guess it sort of stuck. But I wouldn't recommend telling anyone else. He'll know it's because of El and as much as I like watching those two get into it, I don't wanna get her in any serious trouble."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," chuckled Jubilee, "But seriously, does she not like Jean and Scott or something? I mean Jean's all right, even if she comes off as seriously goody-two shoes."

"I dunno what's up with her and Jean," said Kyle with a shrug, "I can see why she doesn't like Scott. They're complete polar opposites, but I thought she actually liked Jean. She started acting weird when Logan and Jean were talking."

Jubilee paused, "Do you think she likes Logan?"

"Who, Jean?"

"No, goof, Elliot," said Jubilee, lightly rapping her knuckles on Kyle's skull, "I mean, do you think Logan's her type? They seem like they would get along really well."

Kyle actually stopped to think about it, "I dunno. Elliot doesn't really have a type unless you count abusive assholes. I don't know him that well, but Logan doesn't seem anything like any of the guys Elliot's ever dated." He paused, "Wait, what does that have to do with Jean and Scoot?"

"Logan's completely in love with Jean! But of course Jean's with Scott, so that's not going, like, anywhere and it totally doesn't help that Scott and Logan wanna beat the crap outta each other."

Kyle blinked, "Annnd….."

Jubilee sighed before explaining, "Logan isn't even in the same area code as being over Jean. Even if a chick as cool as Elliot has the hots for him, there's still gonna be, like, a lot of tension because he's still all hung up and Scott's attitude is totally just eggin' him on! Elliot's probably already picked up on a little bit of it and is probably trying to figure out if Jean has any feelings for Logan because it's not like Jean's exactly perceptive when it comes to how she puts out hotness vibes. I actually think that your sister is like super sexy and she and Logan would probably be really good for each other." She looked thoughtful for a moment before looking at Kyle who was wearing a blank face, "Do you still not get it?"

"If I say I understand, you have to swear to never use the words "your sister" and "super sexy" in the same sentence ever again."

Jubilee laughed and rolled her eyes, "Sheesh, boys."

The young mutant was actually partly right. Elliot had realized within the last hour of being around the three of them that some very weird shit was going on amongst the dominant couple (Jean and Scoot) and the loner character, Logan. The others seemed to hold that particular subject at arm's length. Either they had no idea or they weren't staying as far out of it as was physically possible. Rouge, Ororo AND Remy had taken off as soon as the sparks started flying. Elliot had stuck around because Scoot was annoying her and she wanted to pick a fight with the prick.

They were smart. Clearly, she wasn't.

Now, Elliot was all too aware of the looks and the double meanings or hidden meanings behind statements and she had no friggin' idea how to get the hell out. The LAST thing she needed was to get in the middle of whatever messed up soap opera crap was going on between those three. She had gone through enough fucked up relationships of her own without playing any part in someone else's. To top it all off, Scott was mad at HER for something that wasn't even her damn fault to begin with. Well okay, the power outage MIGHT have been SLIGHTLY her fault since both she and Kyle failed to mention that Kyle occasionally lost control of his powers in intense situations. Just because she was the one who had the foresight to bring a rubber inculcated flashlight that wouldn't be affected by the electricity….and a crowbar….and a pocket sized first aid kit….and a miniature fire extinguisher.

Okay so it was mostly her fault, but Scott should have had the foresight not to push the kid so hard the first time around, so there! She had brought that up, which led to Scoot getting all huffy and then Mr. Living-tank Logan butted in and that in turn stirred up what was apparently a LOOOONG standing fight between those two and Jean attempting to step in to calm the two hot heads down just made everything worse in terms of freaky vibes.

'This is why I am not a people person,' Elliot thought sourly, 'this is why I'm a reptile and animal person.' If one Western Striped Fig Newt had an issue with another Western Striped Fig Newt, they would just pick a near-by stream to mud wrestle in. End of story, conflict resolved. Of course it was no doubt due to the fact that she was a reptile and animal person that she was able to pick up on the freaky vibes and hidden meanings to begin with. Elliot wouldn't have been surprised if her prolonged exposure to dealing with things that express themselves on very low levels had jacked up her awareness of other's emotions. Great. She was an emotional satellite. No wonder she kept attracting weird people.

Before she knew it, both Scoot and Logan had stormed off (in separate directions), leaving her with Jean. "Well," Elliot drawled, trying to think of something to say to break the awkward silence, "That was….totally bizarre."

Jean turned a blank expression on her, "What do you mean?"

Elliot blinked, "Um, ya know, the whole hidden meanings, male posturing, we're gonna rip each other up piece of testosterone theater we just watched."

The red head shrugged it off, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

LIES!

"Honey," Elliot said, deciding that now was the time for her and Jean to level with each other, "I'm a non-mutant, okay? Not deaf, dumb and blind."

Jean sighed and shook her head, "You're right, Elliot. I'm sorry. Things are just so tense between those two and… Well, don't let it bother you, it'll work out."

It'll work out. Sure it will. Yeah fucking right. Elliot had heard that line plenty of times and had never once seen anything work out. But it wasn't her mess to get involved in. She didn't want to be involved. She wanted to be smart like the others were and hightail it to the county line the next time the weird vibes started up so she wouldn't be in the middle of the little soap opera drama.

"Yeah, sure," Elliot said, "If you say so." She watched the red head walk off and heaved a sigh of her own. Today had been a very long weird day. And now it was five o' five. "To drink or not to drink. THAT is the question. Tis far better to be fucked up and happy than sober and confused as hell. Alcoholic logic at its best!"

"Remy think that if _petite _Ellie be talkin' to herself already, she be in no need fer a drink."

Elliot turned to see the tall Cajun mutant lounging against an open window with a cigarette. She put her hands on her hips as she responded, "Yeah well, Elliot think that if she be talkin' to herself, she be in REAL need fer a drink!"

Remy took the teasing in stride. He leaned forward with a soft chuckle, "Remy noticed ya stuck 'round to watch the drama."

"Yeah, thanks for the warning, by the way," Elliot said, "I totally love it when I'm in the middle of a tense situation and I have no idea why."

"Really?" he teased, " 'cause Remy got the feelin' that _petite_ Ellie liked bein' in a fight."

"I liked being in a fight when I start the fight," corrected Elliot, "I do NOT like being in soap opera mind fuck fights. At all. Period."

"Least now ya know about it, oui?"

"Non," she answered, tritely. "I don't like knowing about it and I don't like being a part of it. What is the DEAL with those guys anyway?! They're acting like Jean is the bloody Queen of the Nile and they're fighting for her hand in marriage!"

"Well," Remy said, standing up and using his mutant powers to explode the butt of the cigarette, "Remy know, but he ain't so sure that it be Remy's place to tell _petite_ Ellie."

"Yeah well _petite _Ellie can't get a word outta Jean and Logan's right behind me isn't he?" She knew it had to be one of them from the look on Remy's face. She hadn't gotten yelled at yet, so it couldn't be Scoot. At least that was a plus.

"You ain't one ta talk, sweetheart."

Then again, maybe it wasn't.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Elliot asked in a low dangerous voice, turning to face the man behind her.

Logan met her gaze with his own. "You know what it means."

"Okay, let's pretend I don't," she said, crossing her arms under her breasts and leaning against the wall.

Logan moved until he was nearly towering over the small blonde, "Look sweetheart," he growled, "Don't be bustin' my chops when I was the one who tryin' to stick up fer ya in front of one-eye back there. If you were smart maybe you'd know better than tryin' to pick fights with the big boys."

"Yeah, that's always been my problem," Elliot drawled, "Too dumb for my own good. I can handle the fights I pick, so don't go hauling the little duel for the girl y'all obviously have goin' for Jean."

"Yeah right," Logan said with a harsh laugh, "Ya know the reason girls like you get yer sweet little ass kicked around by scumbag guys is because no sane man would ever be caught dead with a cheap little nobody who…"

What she was Elliot never found out, because for some bizarre reason her hand had curled into a fist which magically connected with Logan's jaw. And then her foot for some reason used the momentum to swing around and kick Logan across the hall. Obviously though, she needed to start working out again to learn some new moves, because that was the same combination she had used to knock her younger brother in the wall just that morning. Of course, Kyle WAS her younger brother and she always held back when she was fighting him.

Even though he was the shortest guy on the team, Logan had the presence to seem like a big guy. Muscle wise he was big and the adamantium in his bones did nothing to detract from his strength. But the same woman, who could toss her much taller brother across the room when she was annoyed, had planted him squarely in the wall across from where he had been standing. He sat there, the wind knocked out of him (and no, it didn't help when one of the pictures on the wall fell on his head when he slammed into it) and tried to figure out just how the hell he got there. He saw Elliot's feet in front of him. He let his gaze wander up until they rested on her face.

Even in his winded, cross-eyed state, he could recognize one fact. Elliot Aimes, the little fairy girl, had been playing when she tackled him last night. She was pissed off. Elliot grabbed the front of Logan's shirt, hauled him up and then slammed him against the wall.

"You got one thing wrong, babe," she said in a dark, quiet voice, "I am not cheap and I have never been easy." She didn't let him go, she threw him down, "I don't like repeating myself so why don't you try to remember that or else I won't be so gentle the next time you want to play."

It wasn't until the sound of her footsteps had faded from even Logan's ears that anyone moved. Remy cautiously moved to Logan's side, extending a hand. Logan took it, letting the taller man help him to his feet.

"_Petite_ Ellie has not so _petite_ temper," Remy observed, "She scarier than you."

xXxXxXx

"What the hell did you say, man?" asked Kyle after his laughter had died down some. He always found it hilarious when someone bore the brunt of Elliot's frustrations and anger. Logan didn't answer. Though this was partly due to the fact that the good doctor McCoy was still resetting his jaw. Adamantium skeleton be damned, that little girl had dislocated his jaw!

"Really though," Kyle continued in a much more sober tone, "It's not like El is the kind of person to take offense to any old thing. She's handed out plenty of broken bones and dislocations, but those were always to things like arms and legs and the occasional collar bone. I've never seen her take a serious face shot just because she was annoyed. If you pissed her off enough to lose that much control, you're lucky you got off with a dislocated jaw and the wind knocked out of you." He grinned, "She must seriously like you."

Hank had finished and backed off, leaving Logan with an ice pack against his jaw. "Oh yeah?" he asked sarcastically, "She the kinda girl who knocks out guys she likes?"

"No, she's the kinda girl who holds back when someone she likes pisses her off."

Logan gave a harsh laugh.

"Please just tell me what you said, Logan," Kyle said. It wasn't the same quiet killing voice Elliot had used, more like the voice of someone who was used to dealing with people who would rather fight than talk. Logan, however, remained silent. Kyle was quiet to for a while, studying the man in the chair across from him thoughtfully.

"What would 'e have said to make _petite_ Ellie so angry?" Remy asked. Logan gave him a look, but he ignored it. Remy liked the little blonde girl, she had seemed very fiery and playful. Nothing like that cold, angry woman he had seen in the hall.

It was the same with her kid brother. He had seemed so young and naive when they first met. Now he seemed so grown up and mature. Kyle looked Remy over slowly before answering. "Elliot's had a hard time ever since she was a little kid. She's been walked all over and called a slut and a failure by people she thought she could trust." Kyle leaned back, running a hand through his hair, "Listen, she's got a pretty thick skin, but there are just some things she can't stand to hear, especially from someone she likes. The only way she knows how to react is to lash out."

He glanced back up at Logan, looking him square in the eye. "You hurt her, so she wanted you to feel as much pain as she did. Simple as that."

Logan looked down at the ice pack in his hands. Without warning he stood up, tossing the ice pack onto the chair.

"Oi," Remy called in surprise, "Where' ya goin'?"

"Out," Logan growled, slamming the door of the infirmary behind him.

"Hmf," the good doctor huffed, "It's a good thing I sent Jubilee out. He's acting childish." Hank shook his head.

Kyle just laughed, flopping back in the infirmary bed. "Lord, what a week. Barely here for 48 hours and El's already landed herself in the middle of some mess."

Remy leaned back with a smile of his own. Things were starting to get very interesting. "_Petite_ said somethin' 'bout gettin' a drink. 's probably where Logan's headed too."

Kyle shot him a grin, "And there aren't that many bars in the area."

"Ellie was pretty mad when she took off, eh _mon amie?"_

Kyle's grin widened and he shook his head, "Oh no. She was upset, really upset probably, but not mad. If you want to see what happens when you REALLY piss her off, you should see what she'll do to the first jackass who tries to mess with her when she's wasted."

xXxXxXx

Only a few brave souls approached the pretty blonde girl who sat alone at a table with a bottle of tequila and a glass. They quickly retreated when she shot them looks that caused every living single cell organism in the air between them to spontaneously combust. The bartender knew her well as one of his regulars, he only had to take one look at her to know that it was just best to give her the bottle she asked for and leave her alone.

Elliot decided she wasn't nearly drunk enough yet. She could still see every single person who had stood behind Logan as he started to tell her (and they had spoken it along with him in a unanimous sing song voice) that she was a cheap nobody and God knows what else. Or, thought Elliot, maybe she was plenty drunk, it was just that the booze had failed to work its magic on her and lift her spirits.

Or, she thought, toying with the rim of her glass, maybe she was just going fucking insane. Big deal. She had been going insane for years. It would be nice if she stopped "going" and finally got to insanity. Then it wouldn't matter when someone called her a slut. Or maybe it would just be worse. Maybe every time someone called her a slut and a nobody she would always see that long line of ex boyfriends, teachers, doctors, friends, strangers and family who had over so many fucking years told her over and over until it had become like a chant in her head.

"Damn," she muttered, "Depression. Depression sucks. Depression can kiss my fucking ass. Fuck you, Depression. In the ass. With a rhino dick. And no lubrication. I bet you even SUCK rhino dick, stupid fucking Depression." She emptied her glass as the voices from her past rose up to mingle and intertwine with her thoughts.

At one point in her life (he didn't stop until she was screaming), she had come to the conclusion that the only way she could survive until she was at least in her thirties (she hadn't meant to start, she knew he got off to it) that it would be far better to spend the time she was awake either insane or drunk (but once the first little cry escaped, they just wouldn't stop). It was so much better (he laughed and called her names in a drunken sing song voice) than being sober (she had been sober that night too, so why did the cops think she was lying?) and remembering all the things those bastards did to her (the crazy girl who got sent off to the doctors, why should they believe her?).

But she just couldn't go crazy enough ("Come now, young lady, do as your elders tell you…"). So she drank ("Stupid little worthless whore..."). And drank (the needles stung, the ropes burned her wrists, but she mustn't scream...). And drank (his hand landed hard on her cheek, knocking her to the ground…). Until hopefully, one day, something would just stop. Because they had all said the same exact fucking thing he had started to say.

"Just a cheap little nobody who's only useful for fucking and beating," she sang softly, the same sing song voice she heard over and…

"It's not true."

She looked slowly up at the man standing next to her, almost falling out of her chair in the process. " 's supposed to be my line," she said in a soft voice.

"Ya don't look like you believe it."

"So what if I don't?" she asked, resting her head on her folded arms, "How do you know it's not true?"

"You ain't a nobody," he said, moving to stand next to her.

"But I am crazy," she insisted, letting her head lull to the side so she could look up at him.

"No crazier than me, sweetheart."

"Than you must be really fucking nuts."

"Come on, sweetheart, let's go home," he said, offering her his hand.

Elliot actually laughed. It was just so utterly ridiculous. So perfectly, maddeningly ridiculous. She had to be crazy, she had to be completely off her fucking rocker. She looked up at the mutant standing in front of her and grinned. It was the kind of grin Death would wear. She stood, grabbing the person in front of her in one fluid motion. The floor under them actually shook when she slammed him down.

"Don't fuck with me," she said in a voice that was half mad laughter, half growl, "You're a million years away from ever beating me, lady."

The person on the floor was in fact a woman. Blue skinned, orange hair. She glared up at Elliot. "How? You're not a mutant! How did you know?!"

"You really curious?" asked Elliot sweetly, grabbing the woman by the throat and lifting her up, "I told you already, honey. I. Am. Fucking. Crazy." She punctuated each word with a slap. The woman started to struggle against her. Elliot grabbed the bottle of tequila from behind her and brought it down onto the woman's head. The glass shattered and the remaining liquor drenched the woman's face.

"Ya know, all around, I'm not much of a confrontational person," Elliot confessed in a conversational tone as she threw the woman across the room, that had emptied pretty damn fast, "I don't pick fights for no good reason," she continued, listening to the satisfying noises of bones crunching under her boots, "But of course someone always has to ruin it by trying to take advantage of my feelings and manipulate me." Next to the door was a floor to ceiling window that made a fun noise when the body of the blue and orange woman crashed through it. It was unnecessary for her to keep hold of the woman's face, so she let go.

"I really fucking hate being manipulated," she said to the men in front of her. She grabbed one of the woman's arms and hurled her over to them. "Don't try to be smart when I'm drunk and insane or I'll fucking kill you."

A ripple of fear actually passed through the assembled mutants.

"She…she beat Mystique…"

"She didn't beat her, she annihilated her."

"Monster…"

She laughed at that. It was a crazed, eerie laugh. "I'm the monster, huh? God, yes." She spread her arms, "Yeah, baby, yeah, now it all makes sense. So," she said, arching her neck back and running her fingers in a slicing motion against it, "Who wants to try and kill the mad little monster?"

"You can't win," said the man in front, he seemed to be the leader, decked out in full body armor, "Our numbers are too many and we are far stronger. You will submit."

"That's a very persuasive argument, but there's one thing you don't understand," Elliot smiled her mad smile again, forming a gun with her index and middle finger, pointing it at her temple, "I don't care." She aimed it at the man. "If you're going to kill me, you had better do it now while you have the chance. I'll never submit. And if you try to force me, you'll get what she got." The crazed smile widened, "And maybe I'll even send of few of you to hell before me. Who would like to have that honor?"

"How about him?" said the armored man, with a grand flourish. A big brute of a man emerged from the back of the group, dragging a very bloody, but miraculously conscious Logan by the back of his neck.

There weren't many things that could have stopped her at that point, but that was one of them.

"Come with us without a fight and we will release this man. Refuse us and his blood will be on your hands."

"Dream on, Magnet ass," came the weak, but still vicious voice of the beaten mutant, "She ain't goin' with you just to save my hide."

"You watch your mouth, runt," snapped the big brute, twisting the arm he was holding sharply. Even from where Elliot was standing, she could hear the snap of bones.

"Well, Miss Aimes?" asked the leader.

She looked the man over one last time. "That's the way it's gonna be then, huh?"

"Yes," he said and it almost looked like he was gloating.

Her shoulders sagged. She looked helpless and vulnerable. "Just…Just let me speak to him first." She turned a pleading gaze on the leader.

"Very well," he said in that same almost gloating tone.

She crossed the distance separating them. Elliot crouched down next to Logan, who was lying in the same place where the big brute had dropped him. One of his arms was twisted and lay at a funny angle. He was still conscious though, looking up at her with dark eyes. "Don't do this, sweetheart," he said in a soft growl, "They're just going to use you against your brother 'nd Xavier."

"Yeah I know," she said, "I'm not that dumb." She paused to look over the broken man in front of her, "I'm sorry about earlier. And I'm sorry you got caught up in…whatever this is."

He looked at her for a long time, studying the strange creature in front of him. She reeked of tequila and Mystique's blood. She didn't seem drunk though. No reeling, no slurred words, no drunken haze clouding her eyes. There wasn't the stink of fear on her either. Maybe that wasn't so strange considering she has just finished trying to kill a mutant who was supposed to be a flawless shape shifter and the superior fighter. The sun was setting, staining the area deep gold and red. She looked just as surreally beautiful huddled down in the dying sunlight as she did lying across the counter in the moonlight. He looked at her for one long minute.

"Yer not a cheap nobody," he said suddenly, "I'm sorry I hurt you."

Elliot's expression actually softened, but all that softness vanished when Sabertooth gave a mocking laugh. "Well ain't that just the sweetest thing I ever did hear!" he crowed, "Hurry up and make yer choice. Go with us or this runt dies." He delivered a sharp kick to Logan's side, "Come on, refuse us. I'm itching to spill a little blood."

"What a coincidence," the little pixie girl said in a dark quiet voice, "So am I." A leg shot out, hooking around Sabertooth ankle and knocking him off balance. He was only on the ground for a second but that was enough for her to deliver a brutal kick to the stomach. He tried to roll away, finding too late that she had one of his hands and was twisting it sharply. Ligaments popped, bones snapped. She did the same to his arm.

It couldn't be said that it was like a repeat of Mystique's beating. It was worse. The mutants seemed to realize all at once that she was fighting to kill this time and she wasn't in any hurry to finish it. As if in one mad attempt to stop her, they rushed her. Well, the ones that had the balls for it did. Some actually turned around and rushed AWAY from the battle. Of course, they didn't get too far, thanks to the sudden appearance of a tall, teenage boy.

"Now where might you lot be going?" he asked softly.

Kyle really did enjoy being able to manipulate electricity sometimes. The right amount of voltages to the right areas could produce absolute wonders, especially in the human brain. He strolled into the battle utterly relaxed, shorting out brains left and right. He wasn't actually hurting anyone, just knocking them out. They'd have sore bodies for about a week with the voltages he was putting in them, but they'd definitely be better off than the idiots who were trying to take out Elliot. Another nice thing was that he knew when someone else had a similar power, just from reading their electrical output. He stood calmly behind the man with the magnet field surrounding him. Kyle sent out a small charge that was the opposite of the magnet field, half to get the guy's attention, half for giggles.

The guy's eyes actually widened in the helmet as he looked at the boy, "You!"

"Me," agreed Kyle, before pointing to the form of Logan suspended a good ten feet in the air and climbing, "Put him down. Very slowly and very gently."

"And if I don't?"

"Well, he might survive," Kyle said, reflectively, "But Elliot won't be too happy about it." He leveled an even stare at the man in front of him. "No one's died yet, but if you kill Logan, she'll make sure you and your little gang suffer before she kills you."

"What would you do if I didn't?" asked the man.

"I don't go in for the whole beating the shit out of whoever pisses you off thing like El does. I know what it's like to be bullied and beaten up, so if I can I try to avoid violence all together, with the exception of occasionally getting my ass handed to me by El. However my sister likes this man a lot, so I can't let you kill him." Kyle let his electric field build up until it was pushing against the magnetic field in front of him. Not hard enough to disrupt, but it was enough to make the man in front of him aware of what he could do if he wanted to.

The man actually smirked, "Has your mind already been so completely corrupted by Xavier? What use is it to use your unique gifts to serve those who wish to destroy you, when you can just as easily rule over them? Even your sister rules over you, for fear of you becoming better than her and becoming more powerful."

"You think Elliot's no better than the humans who want us mutants dead, don't you?"

"Yes," said the man, seizing upon the hesitancy in Kyle's voice, "She is no different than your parents. She chooses instead to use your powers for her own gain. In the end, she will turn you away."

"She…She won't leave me…She can't…"

"Come with me, Kyle," said the man, "I can make you more powerful beyond your wildest dreams. I can give you anything your heart desires. I can give you the family you've longed for."

"For so long…all I've wanted was to just be accepted for who I was," Kyle said softly, hanging his head, "To have a family who loved me…"

"Yes, and I can give you that, Kyle."

"But Elliot..."

"Your sister is not like us, Kyle. Mutants are a superior race, we are meant to rule over the humans."

"That's how it is?"

"Yes."

"Will….Will you at least put Logan down? He's been cool to me and I don't want to see him die like this because of my sister."

"Of course," said the man, lowering Logan down in front of Kyle. Kyle knelt down, touching the battered mutant's shoulder lightly. He suddenly looked up, past the man in front of him.

"So whaddya think?"

"Minus 90 points for the biggest load of bullshit I ever heard and minus 40 points for having a fugly costume."

The man turned sharply to see a bruised and bloody Elliot standing behind him. The rest of the mutant gang lay on the ground, unconscious, but alive. "What…"

"Hey, don't look at me!" she snapped, pointing at her little brother, "That jerk sent a bunch of charges and knocked the fuckers out." She addressed her brother this time, "You ruined all my fun, you jerk."

"Well, you were kinda going insane and it really isn't cool to kill people, even if they do deserve it a little."

"They deserve it a LOT!" griped Elliot, "They totally ruined my slow dramatic descent into madness, tried to kidnap me AND beat the shit out of Logan." She shot a dark glare at the magnet dude, "Seriously, it's like a bad joke."

"How many mutants does it take to capture a freak."

"Shut the fuck up, loser."

"Freak."

"Loser."

"What…What is the meaning of this!" demanded the man, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"You know I seriously cannot believe you fell for the same trick twice," said Elliot, coldly, "Don't expect any honor from someone when you're threatening the people they care about. Duh." She crossed around to help Logan slowly to his feet. "We better get back to Xavier's place to get Mr. Mini-Tank here patched up."

"You brought the van, right? I'll drive."

"Damn straight you'll drive!" called Elliot as she half stumbled off to her car, practically dragging the barely conscious Logan along with her.

"But then…" the magnet guy stopped Kyle, "I don't understand this. Why are you siding with the people who have so mistreated you?"

Kyle, the far more compassionate one, looked at him sympathetically.

"Listen, pal, I'll level with you. I'm not siding with anyone. I meant what I said about being a pacifist. Things like power and ruling over people weaker than me and that sort of thing…I hate shit like that. I'm not using my powers to fight crime or make the world a better place either. I'm 16 years old, man, I'm still learning how to deal with the normal human parts of my body. I don't need the headache of being a superhero OR a dictator to go with it. And by the way, about what you said about having the family I always wanted. I have that."

"If you mean that school of Xavier's then.."

"No," Kyle said, "I mean the outsiders who took me in when all my normal friends bailed on me. The punks and the Goths and the freaks that don't fit in anywhere because they aren't normal and they aren't mutants. I mean the kids at the underground rock shows and the kids in bands who go on to make it in the big time without being sell outs. I mean the people who built a world and a family for the ones who didn't have any of that. They are my family. They are the ones I'm siding with. Not you and not Xavier could ever give me what they did." He turned to go but then paused, "By the way, I'm telling this to you out of the goodness of my heart. If you or anyone from your gang come after anyone else I care about, consider your existence on this planet null and void."

"And after all that high and mighty talk of being a pacifist," sneered the magnet guy.

"But I am also a realist," Kyle observed, "And as a realist, I realize that there are some things that are worth fighting and killing for." The look he gave the man this time was cold and heartless, "You only saw a little bit of what we're capable of. Come after us or our people again, it won't end well for you and you better pray to every god and heaven that Xavier and the X-Men get to you first because if it's the two of us, you will die."

"Very well," magnet guy said, tightly.

"Oh and you better go get your people some medical attention," said Kyle as he strode off, "El wasn't playing gentle today. So long."

Magneto stood there for a while, letting the last hour sink in. Looking around he saw all his comrades, unconscious because of a boy with unparalleled mutant skills and bloody because of a young woman who he had drastically underestimated. He wanted Kyle to join his forces, but it had been made clear to him that any further disturbances such as these would not be tolerated. But, he decided, he would keep an eye on the two of them. They were too powerful and too vicious not to.

He and the others were gone by the time Kyle pulled Elliot's van out of the parking lot.

xXxXxXx

"You're looking a lot more sober….and sane," Kyle told his sister as he drove down the darkening road.

"Thank you," Elliot said, "I feel much more sane and sober."

"Sober and sane," corrected Kyle.

"Whatever."

"How much did you have to drink, anyway?" asked Kyle, "You were there for like three hours before the action started."

"Um, like ¾ of a bottle of tequila."

"Okay, here is what I do not understand…"

"What do you not understand?" asked Elliot in the same cadence her brother had used.

"How is it that you could drink so much that first night and only go a little crazy and turn around, only drink a little and go completely out of your mind?"

"That is a veeeerrry good question," said Elliot, thoughtfully, "That first night, I was in a pretty cheerful mood, all things considered. Alcohol is, of course, a mood enhancer…"

"Of course," agreed Kyle.

"So," continued Elliot, "When I started drinking today, I was already working my way down the road to going totally bat shit crazy."

"Makes perfect sense."

"Now here is what I do not understand," began Elliot.

"What do you not understand?"

"How did you know where I was and how did you know that Logan needed help?"

Kyle grinned a little at that. Of course, Elliot would never admit to needing his help and he wasn't so sure she had needed it back there if it wasn't for Mr. Magnet. "Jean got a mental message from Logan," he told her, "He said he had been captured by someone and so on and that they were taking him to use as a bargaining chip against you. Of course, I knew that you had a thing for this middle-of-nowhere bar…"

"Of course," agreed Elliot.

"So," continued Kyle, "I flew on down until it looked like I was getting too close and walked the last block while all the grown-ups were hooting and hollering about what to do back at Xavier's place."

"You have truly become a man," Elliot said in a satisfied voice, "Your first major defiance against authority. I'm so proud."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Do you think we should at least send out a mental message or something?" asked Kyle glancing back up at the rearview mirror, "I mean, so our costumed friends don't descend en masse on an empty parking lot covered in blood?"

Elliot thought about it for a minute. "Yeah, I guess. They're gonna freak out all over this anyway. Better it be at the school than at the parking lot when all the news crews and cops show up." She paused for a second, "Wait, aren't Jean and the Prof. supposed to be psychics? How do they not know where we are?"

"Easy," said Kyle with a shrug, "Brain waves are just different types of electricity and telepaths put out a very strong vibe when they're trying to get into someone else's mind. So all I have to do is throw up a negatively charge buffer around my head and they can't see anything I don't want them to."

"What about my brain waves?"

"Yeah well, you were going kinda insane..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Send the friggin' mental message already." Elliot leaned back down in the back of the van as Kyle held a silent conversation with whichever telepath he happened to link up. It was a spacious van (some of the older students at the University called it a "shaggin' wagon") that usually held the equipment she needed when out in the field. There was also a foam pad that usually was rolled up in a neat little bundle and stored under the front seats and blankets for when the van really did become a "shaggin' wagon." She had rolled those out after getting Logan to the van and made the bed as comfortable as possible. She hadn't felt particularly compelled to haul her ass up to the seats, so she had opted to snuggle down in the blankets next to Logan. She watched him as the disorienting motion of the car lulled her.

It wasn't as though she hadn't felt strongly about someone before. For all her eccentricities and bad people skills, Elliot had been a fairly popular girl among the guys at school and work. She had never really actively pursued many of her interests, but she wasn't completely devoid of experience. What did she have with this man, though?

There was a physical connection, God, was there a physical connection. But emotionally…

Elliot grimaced. Emotionally, he was in love with another woman who had been around before her and Elliot was such a psychological mess that it almost didn't matter whether or not she had trust issues, because no sane person would want to be with someone as fucked up as she was.

Whatever, she thought, snuggling down further, she was too tired to give a damn right now. She wanted to at least have a few minutes rest before facing the wrath of Scoot. Though between her covered in blood that for the most part belonged to other people and what was sure to be a relaxed explanation from Kyle ("Yeah, she just went a little crazy and tried to kill some of them. No big thing.") she might not have to worry about it until much later.

TBC

Loooong chapter again! I know it was weird, but I ended up liking it a lot, so I don't think I'll do any drastic editing. Most of this chapter was written from 10 to 4:50 in the morning and I only got about five hours of sleep after that. So yeah, this was totally the sleep deprivation chapter.

NEXT CHAPTER! STFU!


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